Violet Era: Wilted Rose
by Therix
Summary: With the end of the brief Civil War, some great tension is relieved from the Acorn Kingdom. However, no rest is present for the Freedom Fighters, for they soon find themselves fighting through a landscape they do not know as the very world itself attempts to bring them to their knees. Second Arc in the Violet Era series, sequel to Weapons Free.
1. Succession i

Max didn't feel as keenly as he would have expected for his loss. Alicia, dead two weeks now, the funeral at the end of the first…it was different, yes, but it was not as crippling as he thought it should be. When you lost a spouse you were _lost, crippled._ It would have done him no good, but it was disconcerting nonetheless that he didn't feel that way. He _missed_ her, yes, he was upset, yes, but not in the way he felt was right. Peculiar.

He stood at a window in his quarters, looking out over the city and reconstruction of the walls. A glass of wine was held in one hand and his clothes, an immaculate suit, struck an imposing, noble figure in the fading light. Another blasted meeting today, this one to decide, along with the new commander, a salamander by the name of Hartley, where the remaining forces would be stationed until the current ones were finished being weeded for traitors.

That was another problem: Antoine's resignation. When he finally kicked the bucket the king had been hoping it would be his right to appoint a new general, but Antoine had beaten him to the post. Provided the general left in an honourable discharge – and it was, he had chosen to do so – he was granted his choice of general. As long as his successor was also in the force, he could pick literally anyone to take command and this Hartley character seemed far too much like Antoine for the king's liking. He was a strong commander – he had the skill at command that his predecessor had, and he was so damn _stubborn…_there was nothing Max could do to change him. He was stuck until he either got himself killed or chose a successor. Preferably the latter; he wanted at least one general of his choice before he hit the tombstones himself.

Succession, procession, that brought up all sorts of irritating problems. Both Sally and Elias had managed to survive the conflict, to his chagrin – Sally was too stubborn to die and Elias was on holiday – so that left him with a problem. He needed a ruler, someone who would stand up for _his_ ideals, maintain the kingdom the way he would have wanted it. Neither of his current heirs would do that, he was sure.

"Your majesty?" he shifted slightly at the sound of the voice.

"Yes?" he replied, without turning.

* * *

"What's the problem, then?" Tails tapped his foot in irritation as he stared at the Nicole hologram in Knothole's primary lab. "You know the deal; you tell me or I find out myself."

The hologram scratched the back of her head nervously, a sign Tails didn't associate with the Knothole AI. She was normally so in control of things…something had her riled…_she was hiding something._ The thought hit him. He snapped his fingers in front of her, trying to catch her attention again. "Come on Nicole, I'm not waiting all day. I've got a shitload of other stuff to get off my back, so sort this out for me now."

_What the hell was she hiding?_

"I-uh-"

"Oh come on, spit it out. This isn't like you; you don't seem to usually need me to be so blunt, but since this seems to be an exception, I'll come out and say it – what are you hiding from me?"

"Morning everyone- Oh, you two. Don't let me interrupt." Rotor finished in a defensive tone as he plodded into the lab and dropped a mound of paperwork onto his empty desk.

"Something up?" Tails asked calmly.

Rotor glared at him. "I think you know quite well what's up."

"Excuse me, I only just-"

"Got back? Yea, I know that part. You also got my messages, and you haven't figured it out from that?"

"You're not-"

"Bloody Christ Tails, you're the whole reason for it!"

"Alright, stop cutting me off! Fuck sake, I get your messages shouting at me for roaming around the network making changes…I haven't touched the fucking thing!"

"And you expect me to believe that? I was the one who watched here ruthlessly slaughter those targets, she told me you had made the changes to 'defend Knothole through any means necessary'! She…" his rant faded, and his expression fixed into one of perplexity. "Nicole," he tried again, "how about you tell us exactly what Tails did, hmm?"  
Nicole's manner changed, it became calmer, strangely serene. "I see you have me over a barrel; not a hard manoeuvre, not in this case, but nonetheless…I made those modifications."

The two organics shared a glance. One said, _She shouldn't be able to do this_, the other conveyed _Since when?_

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you didn't think I was capable of it!" she threw holographic arms in the air, "My whole purpose is all about controlling a city, and you thought I wouldn't be smart enough to make a few personality modifications?"

"We- I just don't see the point in it. It's out of line." Rotor grumbled at her outburst.

"I'm _tryiiinng_," Nicole replied with emphasis, "To keep this city safe. If that means going out of my way to kill faster than they kill us, _sorry for trying._"

"I can see this is a waste of time." Tails held up one hand to silence any continuation Rotor was about to begin, "just let me dig around the core for ten minutes or so; I'll get this sorted." He finished with a shrug, picking up a handful of screwdrivers and moving from the room. Nicole's face flickered in concern briefly then followed him, the AI hologram picking up speed to catch up.

"Wait! Wh-what are you doing?" she asked as she caught up, waving her hands to try and get his attention.

"What does it look like?" his head titled to bring her into his vision, but he kept walking, "I'm fixing this. You're making changes where you shouldn't be – digging into filled graves – you're out of line. I'm putting you back in. This was going behind our backs Nicole…don't get me wrong, I'm fond of you, but I will disconnect you if you do this again."

It was like facing oblivion. Tails knew full well how to shut her down, and worse, he most definitely would if he needed to.

"You can't! The city doesn't run properly without me!" she snapped, tracking after him.

"I believe I can. While it would be such a waste to disconnect you and stick you back in an isolated unit, a standard AI construct could fulfil your role of running the city, and your legions would be transferred to piloted drones. I keep you alive because you're a friend to me, and that can very rapidly change."

"Tails!" She interposed herself between him and the doorway at the end of the hall. "I'm trying to protect people! That's all!"

"Then why did you go under my radar? If that was all it was, to 'protect people', then you could have asked. You could have talked to me about it, making these changes before something like this. Perhaps it was part of your motive, maybe not. Tell me why you so desperately needed to hide this if that is all you wanted?"

"I- I don't know…isn't this what you organics do, hide things for reasons you cannot explain?" Tails paused. He did…his past, his feelings…but they had reasons. His past, to keep him secure, his feelings, to always appear in control."

"No…that's not true. We always have a reason, no matter how obscure." He gave Nicole the benefit of a pause herself, to see if she did have her reason.

"I guess…then…" she began slowly, tentatively, "I guess I hoped you would trust me enough." She looked back up at him from staring at her feet, and saw him in contemplation, his gaze down and brow furrowed.

"Trust…" he finally said after a long moment of awkward silence, "Is something I find lacking in this world. It cannot be measured, nor can it be guaranteed. I can see your choice…I will give you this chance now, Nicole. I hold little trust in anything, so do not do this again. You know the fate." He pushed past her, his mood grim now he had found her reason. _Trust_…like that ever got anyone anywhere these days.

* * *

He did _want_ to be king, just not the benighted, emotionless shell his father was. Running the kingdom at the expense of those closest to you…it wasn't the way to do it. He knew politics, despite his father's insistence to the contrary.

"Dear, you have to talk to him." He looked up from the newspaper as his wife came in.

"Megan…I don't know how! I know what I want to say but never how to say it! He's my father, so it's not like I can just walk in and start shouting at him!" he tried to keep the note of desperation out of his voice but to no avail, though he doubted he could have concealed it from her.

"Why not?"

"He's my father!"

"And you're his eldest. It's not as if he can stop you from ruling, unless he specifically appoints your dear sister, and it's not as if you two don't get on. Come on, Elias, dear, you don't need to worry." She reached over the hardwood table and took her husband's hand in a supporting gesture.

"Don't I?" he sounded tired. "He's been trying for years to find another heir, and no-one can walk in and start accusing the ruling monarch."

"But he isn't, not to you, dear. He's your _father_, not everything you do has to have political consequences. I know you're worried, and we've all got a lot going on, but you really don't have anything to worry about." The sound of her voice was reassuring, at least, and the words put him at ease – somewhat.

After a few moments Elias allowed a weak smile onto his face. "You make it sound so simple…it just feels like you- like I'm missing something." He released her hand and pushed back from the table, folding the newspaper and leaving it on the table as he instead took up the cooling cup of tea, sipping from it as his brow furrowed in thought. "Since when do you know so much when it comes to politics?" he finally asked, looking back down at his wife with a wry smirk.

She sighed slowly, relaxing in the seat. "A king and his son aren't exactly politics, dear, and even then, I wouldn't do you much good if I couldn't give you _some_help every now and then." She stood herself, drifting over to him and folding her arms around his waist, sneaking up under his arm. He reciprocated the gesture and they stood in each other's embrace for a long moment until their daughter ran into the room, clinging to one of her toys. She saw what her parents were doing and squealed in girlish delight, running over and wrapping her arms around their legs best she could. Classic family hug.

Elias broke off as his pocket vibrated, and he released the other two so he could take out his phone.

Sally calling, thank god. At least she would be pressuring him like most of the others. He answered and held it up to his ear.

"Sister? How is everything?"

"You mean apart from the obvious?" He heard her choke back a watery sob. "I just…we didn't talk much at the funeral, and I was hoping we could get together, catch up or something…"

"I- of course! We haven't seen each other in months! When would you like?"

"Are you busy?"

"No-"

"Then why not today? We're still at the palace…" She longed for interaction – she needed someone.

"Maybe you should come here-" Elias cut across his sister's explanations, "I'm not really ready to have another shouting match with dad. My throat's still hoarse from the last one."

"Y-yea, I'll be right there. Can Sonic come?"

"Sure. Is there anyone else I should know about?"

"No…the others went back to Knothole. We all lost someone in that war, Elias. We lost our mum; they lost their brother-in-arms. Retis died to save others." Despondent again.

"Damn. Come over, we can talk things out, relax a bit now this turmoil has resolved."

Sally smiled, though her brother could not see it. He was always polite if he could be – caring, but not polite to the point of detachment. "Thanks Elias, I'm glad you still like to see me."

"What?" came his reply down the phone, "Are you joking? When I stop caring about you, that will be the day I am no longer fit for the throne. Come on over, we'll enjoy each other's company and catch up on time sorely missed."

"Thanks. See you in a few, then. Bye Elias, love you bro."

"See ya, sis, love you too." He had unconsciously mirrored her gesture, and it elicited a single giggle from the princess as she closed the phone, having gotten him to momentarily drop that loveable formality with which he greeted everything. "Sonic?" she said over her shoulder, "we're going to see my brother."

* * *

"Ant, hun, ya didn't have to throw ya job away foh me." Bunnie cooed in his ear.

"Ah wanted to, Ma Cheri; eeht would not be very generous of moi if I got myself killed in tze wars, no?"

"Mah dear, always thinkin' of others, s'why I wanted to be with ya in the first place. Ah left ya in the first place 'cause ah wanted ya to be happy, but Sal talked me back in ta comin' back."

Absent-mindedly he patted the side of her head as the two sat in one of the few undamaged parts of the Mobotropolis wall, looking out over the jungle. Antoine sat on the rim of the firing lane, relaxed and calm after the turmoil, while Bunnie half-sat, half-lay under his right arm. She too felt much more at ease, but her mind was still assailed by decisions, whether or not Antoine would truly be happy with her.

"Eeht was not ze most sound decision you have ever made." He agreed, a smirk slowly crossing his features.

"And why not?" she snapped, irritated by intrigued.

"I could never remain happy without you." The words rocked Bunnie, and she shook, visibly shook, double-checking what Antoine had said as the retired veteran slid off the back of the firing-step, searching himself for something. Finally, he produced a small ivory box, and determined to do this by tradition, dropped to one knee and flipped the lid open, exposing the small treasure within. For a moment Bunnie, as she sat up and turned, didn't quite grasp what was going on. Antoine eventually had to explain before she caught on.

"Bunnie, eeht would d-do this veteran a-a great honour if you would m-marry me." He stuttered, unsure of himself, having spent this long gaining courage enough to even propose. Even then, it seemed to take a few seconds to sink in before she went through the age-old process of collapsing slightly. Her robotic legs seized up to prevent this unwanted stagger, and she remained on her feet instead of tipping to the ground, so the swoon wasn't as dramatic as you would have expected, but nonetheless, it happened.

"Ah- wha…?" she was speechless.

"Eeht is the only way to make sure you do not run from me again. I could not bear tze pain of losing you a second time." He said it jokingly, but there was a serious note to it. "Bunnie, I love you, please, do not do this to me again."

"There ain't no-one else?"

"Why would there be?" he couldn't understand it. Did she _not_ want to marry him?

"I ain't exactly perfect, and with this damn mutation…" she held up her robotic hand in front of her face, spinning it on the wrist joint, the plates rippling as weapons ran through weapon checks. "No chance for a family, ah don't see why you would…"

Antoine interrupted before she could criticise herself further. "Eeht is of no moment, we cannot choose who tze love of our life is, and I cannot love another. And do not worry about tze children, we will work something out, I swear. But…I still await and answer." He titled his head to the floor in a respectful, solemn gesture, waiting for a reply. He was trembling in his clothes, his life hanging in the balance.

"Yes! Alright! If ya want to throw ya life away on me then I must be mad not to say yes!" it came out almost as a shout, not girlish but reserved, confused still…so self-depreciative.

Still, she had accepted, and that was a step in the right direction.

* * *

"We heard what had happened on the way in…saw the damage too. It wasn't very appealing to go speak to dad when we got back, so we rented one of the nicer hotels to wait things out a bit." Elias explained as Megan handed out drinks of various kinds to the family members. "I gather we made the right choice, going away from home."  
"Got that right." Sonic replied sourly, staring into his beer. "But it won't happen again, Tails made sure of that."

"Oh, yes. I gathered that he had a big hand in ending the war, but I couldn't find anyone who knew enough to give me the details."

"Ending it? He fucking ran it!" Sonic momentarily forgot there was a child in the room, and Megan's hands went to Alexis' ears before the blue hedgehog recovered. "Oh, sorry, gah, not used to being around kinds anymore. Nah, listen, Tails held us all together, kept things going, hell, he always stayed on top of things, no matter what."

"We always knew that kid was capable of so much more than he let on." Megan interjected.

"Oh, big, **big** understatement. He is no way a kid any more, I can tell you that for sure. He's more dangerous than the rest of the team put together, and he knows it all too well."

"He doesn't let anything get in his way anymore." Sally piped up, her voice still subdued as she fought to control her emotions. "If you argue with him even on the most trivial details, he wins because he's too damn smart for anyone else to come up with something convincing enough to overcome him. I'm really worried that he's going to reach that point where he can't go any further, and he isn't going to know how to ask for help."

"I didn't think he had any limits to speak of. He supplies the military with all their weaponry, armour and ordnance, he's fixed most of the cities through that head of his…he's lonely though." Elias realised, suddenly.

"What are you talking about?"

"Sister, look at him. He's so insular, introspective, he hasn't got anyone there for him."

"He has Amy, doesn't he?" Sonic replied, a half-hearted attempt to defend Tails.

"Does that look at all like they're getting along?" Elias countered.

"Well, they haven't had a single argument yet…"

"They haven't had an _anything_ yet! They do barely anything together – they only seem to be getting along thanks to the complete lack of interaction. Come on Sonic, you should know these things a bit by now."

"How would I know what Tails is doing with his life?"

* * *

_"Something's wrong, come on Fiona, we can tell."_

"Something's wrong with all of us, in case you hadn't noticed."

_"Yea, sure, but with you it's beyond Retis. What's wrong?"_

"Nothing's wrong, for fuck's sake!" Fiona threw her arms in the air, glaring at Telera. The tigress' expression did not change, but she continued to sign.

_"Don't lie, and don't yell. I can speak over it, and it just makes you look childish."_

"Just leave me alone!"

_"Whatever it is, silence won't make it go away."_

"Just leave me alone!" Fiona snapped, jumping from the seat and storming from the room. The moment she left she regretted it, but she couldn't apologise. It would be too embarrassing – and why did Telera have to pry into her business?

She just…

Why?

She couldn't make sense of things…why was she feeling like this? Ever since she met Tails it was always this way…why did he have to be so kind, and naïve at the same time? She needed to find Tails, talk to him, work out what the hell was going on, but he seemed to be going to lengths to hide himself.

Fiona made her way to her room, and threw herself onto the bed in a mix of self-pity and unhappiness. She lay there, shaking, trying to ride out the tide of emotion sweeping her down, until she slowly fell asleep, too tired to keep herself awake. Too much to think about, tired and hungry.

Why did she feel this way?

How did she even feel?

Ever since she joined the team…

Something about him…

Something was always in the way.

Some task he had to perform.

Some life to save.

He had wanted her to come back, hadn't he?

He had told her so in the forest.

Maybe he didn't know.

Could he be so smart, yet so oblivious?

She…

Could she?

It was possible.

She would have to ask him.


	2. Succession ii

"Tails, could you give me a hand?"

"That depends, what do you need me for?" he peered up from his work, soldering iron pausing just above the connection to watch the hologram of Nicole. She had switched out the purple dress for a phthalo one, and a black flower was pinned on the dress just over her left breast. He assumed it was her way of marking the passing of two friends that the other members of the team were mourning for. It was a nice touch.

"I'm feeling faults in the emerald chamber. It keeps sending ripples through my system. I can deal with the problems it causes to me, but each time I do I have to drop whatever I'm doing in case it sends anything really problematic. You think you could take a look? I don't know the ins and outs to the chaos generator in physical terms, and I'd rather not spend a few weeks figuring it out first."

"Effects?" this could be a cause for concern. If rogue energy was escaping it could cause all sorts of problems in the system.

"Psychotic hunter programs. Well, not hunter programs as such, but they destroy things so it basically accomplishes the same goals. They're vaguely reminiscent of the Dingo hunter constructs when it comes to power, but they're not guided very well, so one against the other the Dingo would probably win. It's just awkward, really."

"Alright then, I'll take a look." He stood from the worktable and looked down the hallway. "Rotor?" he called, "can you run a system diagnostic on the emerald energy convertors and anything linked to them? Nicole's having problems with it. I'm going to take a look at the actual stuff myself."

"Alright, alright. Gimme a minute and I'll do it!" came the reply. Satisfied, Tail stood walked round the edge of the table and out the room, pulling Nicole out by the arm. "How are the others?" he asked as they slowed to a walk, leaving the communal laboratory and walked into the daylight covering the streets of Knothole.

"Hmm?"

"How is everyone else coping? I noticed the black rose."

"Oh, yes…Well, Lupin is as cold as ever, and Telera is holding her own, though I have had to talk to her a couple of times at her request. Sonic and Sally I don't know, they haven't returned yet."

"Amy? Fiona?"

"Amy's melodramatic. In tears, that sort of thing. She takes this sort of thing badly regardless of who it is. Fiona…something is really up with her. I saw Telera talking to her – there's something on her mind aside from all the loss we have suffered. I can't really tell what's bothering her on top of all this. I could speculate but I doubt it would get us anywhere."

"Maybe you could talk to her?"

"Why me? I get on her nerves, heck, sometimes she's scared of me. What's wrong with you?"

"I think I might be the cause of her concern." Tails slowed to a stop on the pavement, shaking his head as he stared at the paving slabs. Idly he scratched the back of his neck, cursing softly.

"What did you do?" Nicole leant forward slightly, hands clasped behind her back.

"I ordered her to kill someone for me, then tried to justify the deaths of any number of innocents. In the end she defied both orders because she believed it right to do so, and Retis died to destroy the artillery and prevent so many other deaths. It weighs heavily upon her, I think."

"You made a mistake then, you made two in fact. I hope it's not habit-forming."

"This is serious." He complained.

"I know. I know this is happening, but I can't believe I'm giving counselling to you. I can't talk to her about what you did wrong – it won't do either of you any favours. You're going to have to be the one to talk to her or it won't get us anywhere. Sort this out then go talk to her, sort things out now."

"And I can't believe I'm taking the advice either." Tails looked up sullenly.

* * *

"Surely the law dictates that-"

"I _am_ the law. I make the rules, I decide who will make them after me."

"But-"

"Think carefully before you finish that sentence. Your job is not as secure as you would like it to be."

"Which is why we are here." The G.U.N ambassador said, inclining his head slightly and smirking at the little drama playing out between the king and the minister from the council. "Would you excuse yourself, sir? I would like to discuss something with the king in private."

"But-"

"You're dismissed, Reynold." The king waved his hand at the man, and with a humph the minister stormed from the room. "You were saying?"

"Yes, I believe there is a way for you to assume a more absolute control over your kingdom."

As the king returned to his seat he pondered this, thinking carefully before replying. "Naturally, yes, any ruler would be interested, but why don't you tell me exactly what you have in mind, and then what this means for you?"

The man tapped the side of his nose. "You're shrewd, unlike many of the other nobles I have to deal with in the day-to-day. Yes, there is a second side to this coin. With you in a position of Absolute Monarchy, you would be able to make decisions on a whim, whatever you please. Is this correct?"

"It is."

"Well, my benefactor is not quite…shall we say, he is not quite acting in the government interest? He wants more power, for do we not all want more than what we have? It is the nature of anything that can think or feel. Well, anyway, my benefactor believes you could help him…politically. Pull the public opinion his way within G.U.N with your political influence."

"So you help me overthrow my government, and in return I help you overthrow yours?" It sounded underhand, risky obviously, but challenging…altogether an interesting proposition, to say the least.

"It sounds so vulgar, so cruel to put it that way, but yes, when we get right down to it, that is basically what we suggest."

"Of course, I will need to speak with your benefactor before-"

"Out of the question." The ambassador replied, then caught himself as he realised how tart his voice had sounded. "My apologies, but he rarely allows visitors, even ones held in such high prestige as you. I'm his senses in the outside world, and he speaks through me."

"Then this isn't going to work." Max began to rise.

"No, wait. Stay a moment. I will talk to him, see if I can arrange something, but his word is law to me, and I am doing it only because it serves our interests. For now, how about we get a little more acquainted? When I leave, I will see whether or not Dr Soros will permit a meeting of any kind."  
"I see. The terms are acceptable, for now. But now a question. You have told me the name of your Benefactor, but, what then, is yours?"  
"Oh, yes, my dearest apologies for not properly introducing myself earlier. My name is Isaac, Isaac Gadet."

"Well then, Isaac, what would you have me know?"

* * *

"Guh…Fiona? You in there?" Tails sighed, knocking slowly on the door to her room.

"Who- who is it?" came the shaky-sounding reply.

"It's Tails…can I come in? I need to talk to you. It's important."

For a moment he feared that she would not respond, that he had – in some way – managed to alienate himself through his cold, unfeeling actions. The he heard the scuffling off sheets and the sound of footsteps, and the door clicked open a notch. Then he blushed at the sight. Apparently she had been sleeping – in her half-waking and groggy state, she had neglected to put anything on before coming to the door.

"Fiona? You're not- you're not wearing anything."

"Does it matter all that much? I'm tired. Is this going to take long?"

"Uh- no, I…I only need a couple of minutes of your time."

"You really choose your times Tails…eleven o-clock? Right then, come on in…" she pulled the door completely open, turning slowly and walking back to the bed. Tails found he was having a hard time keeping his eyes fixed on her head, rather than travelling down the rest of her, at least until she wormed her way back under the covers. "You going to stand there all night until I fall asleep again? Come in asshole, I'm only letting you in because I think I know what you're going to say."

Her words made him start, but her recovered, stepping inside, shutting the door and plonking himself down in the available seat.

"So, what do you want?" she asked, still in that half-asleep voice.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." It came out awkwardly, as if he didn't really understand what he was talking about. "When I told you to kill that general, I acted like you were just a pawn. I always take the most efficient solution, not always the best one."

* * *

_"You asshole, what did you do to him?"_

_"I killed him, Sonic. Now he can't try again – isn't that what you want?"_

_"I didn't want to-"_

_"What we want and what we get are often two very different things, Sonic. Sometimes the bloody option is the only one that works."_

* * *

"I like what I do to leave a mark, to be permanent. Anything I do is always the one that I at least believe will make sure whoever it is can't hurt us again."  
"Oh." He could hear Fiona was disappointed about something. "Was that it?"

"I take it that it wasn't what you were expecting to hear."

"Just…just go. Let me sleep." She turned over, exposing her shoulder blades to him but dismissing any chance for further discussion. He took the hint, and moved to the door. He thought to reply on his way out, but shook his head as he realised there wasn't anything he _could_ say. The door shut with a soft clunk behind him, and he didn't hear Fiona shiver, not with the cold, but with sorrow.

* * *

"Are you feeling alright, Sonic?" Elias mocked, "You don't normally spend this long staying still."

"I kinda made a promise to myself and Sally that I'd try and think a bit more before I do things.!" He replied, his voice dropping slightly.

"It had got to the point where we were arguing about it." Sally voiced for him. "Mum cleared it up for us…"

"Always solving problems, even now." The older sibling smiled. "It's good to hear that everyone is managing to get back on track."

"She was always helping us…" Sonic lost track of things, beginning to look round the room when his comm beeped, startling everyone in the room and making Alexis giggle.

"Sorry, I'll be right back, probably gotta take this." He apologies quickly, darting up from his seat and into the adjoining hallway. Once there, he put one hand to his ear. "Yea?"

"It's Tails. Where are you?"

"With Sally and her bro in one of the Mobotropolis hotels."

"I'm on my way back. I'm going to follow your signal and get to all of you. I just remembered something important. Max. With Alicia gone, there's nothing restraining him politically. He's at the top of the pyramid and he's always wanted to stop either Sally or Elias from claiming the throne. I need to talk with you all and see what we can do to ensure Elias gets the throne."

"Elias? Why him? What's wrong with Sally?"

"Come on Sonic, you know she doesn't exactly want the throne. It would separate her from the rest of us, and it's that sort of isolation that she hates. We both known Elias is the sort of ruler we all want, and he has spent more time around the royalty and nobles than Sally has, and so he will be able to settle faster and gather the kingdom to him. Sally doesn't want to have to do all that, she just wants to be with you and as far as I'm concerned, that's enough for me. ETA five minutes, see you soon." The link went quiet.

"Yea, see ya…" Sonic replied gently, though he knew his friend was gone.

* * *

_"I didn't know what I was doing, alright?"  
"You made a mistake. Big deal, we all make them. Get over it."  
"I can't get over it, Sonic! I don't make mistakes!"  
"Well you just started. Just keep on running, like I've always done."_

* * *

He walked back into the room, shaking his head at what he'd just heard.

"Who was it?" Elias questioned.

"Tails. He's on his way over to talk to you about your dad and who's getting the shiny hat after the guy kicks that crystal-bucket of his." His particular turn of phrase earnt him an endearing glare from Sally, but no reprisal, so he took it as approval, if grudging.

With that the discussion turned to that of the throne, the crown and the matter of succession, and by the time Tails arrived there had been some development. As Megan brought him in, fussing over him as she was wont to do, and though Sonic saw his expression was one of mixed irritation and concern, he did not brush her away, seemingly thankful to be back in the company of friends, despite the serious nature of what they were needing to discourse.

"Sorry I have to interrupt the family reunion in this way, I truly am, but I don't think that any of us can really afford to let this wait any longer."

"No, no, this would have come up eventually. Better to sort it out now than leave it 'till later, or worse, to chance." Elias assured him as Tails lowered himself into another chair that Megan fetched from the kitchen.

"I'm not frightfully versed in the complete history of politics, but am I missing something? Elias is the oldest, so shouldn't he just assume the throne anyway?" Megan asked, as she returned to her seat and lifted Alexis back onto her lap.

"For any other monarch that is precisely the case. By law and to some extent tradition, and I quote from the old texts, 'The burden of leadership of his people shalt be borne upon the shoulders of the king's eldest son, unless the monarch would appoint another descendant of his blood.' Now, of course, normally this would mean his choices are limited to either your husband or Sally, and I doubt anyone would object to them taking the throne." Tails paused a moment to glance at the two different royals. "But to be frank, we know that good ol' Max doesn't really want his current heirs on the throne, and I know he will go to almost any lengths to find a way out."

"We need a concrete reason to make him follow the old method." Sally leant forward, slipping into her business mood. "All we really need to do is make dad follow the rules. Getting him to make you king is a given if we can do that, Elias. If we force him into a corner far enough just to make him follow tradition, he'd choose you over me any day. Besides, you'd be a better ruler than I would."

"What makes you think so?" Elias didn't sound so sure.

"Come on, Elias, dad has been trying to drag you into his life for years. It hasn't worked, but you spend more time in the boardroom than I do. You know more about the etiquette for it, you have more patience with people. I'm not exactly proud of my shortcomings but this is me, you know what I do and I think we all agree you would be better on the throne than I would."

"Now we have the pleasantries, praises and self-depreciation out of the way, do you think we could decide what we're actually going do to about this?" Tails grumbled. "I don't suppose any of you have anything? I must admit, I didn't give it much thought on my way over – my mind was somewhere else."

"Well, we could do it politically. The council is still official, and if he tries to change the system, we could vote to make it a vote of substance, and thus put it to the council to decide. No-one in the council wants to lose their grip on power for one reason for another, so some will side of us out of common sense, and others just because they don't want to lose their jobs." Elias offered.

"But Max can overrule the council, can't he?" Sonic checked.

"Ah, but the motion to overrule is a matter of substance that is decided within the royal family. I don't think either me or my sister will agree with our father on this, do you?"

"If it really comes to it, we can just keep stalling him until nature takes its course. It would probably take a bit longer, but would that work as a plan B?"

Megan put in, her voice remaining completely level and her expression remaining totally serious. Tails, to everyone's relief, buried his head in his hands and chucked silently for a few seconds before replying.

"You know, if we can't think of anything better, I don't have a problem with that. Sending an e-mail to the council to make it a matter of substance once a week sounds exactly like the sort of thing I can do in my spare time just to really get on Max's wick." He replied, shaking his head, grinning slowly.

"Erm…guys, I think we're all forgetting something." Sonic finally said, shakily, and all heads turned to him, and he drummed his fingers against his temple for several moments before finishing. "I think I read something a while back…I think…the 'Monarch's Ultimatum?' Doesn't it, ya know, let him make any decision he wants?"

Sally swore vehemently, and it was her turn to look embarrassed as she too remembered Alexis. "Sorry, Sonic is right. The Monarch's Ultimatum was created by the first Acorn monarch, and his council to serve as a spare key if the council could not be called upon to reliable pass judgement on the matter. Unfortunately, back then the systems were simpler, and so the Monarch's Ultimatum had no limits to which it might be employed. Mostly it is never used, since thankfully most of my- our ancestors have been willing to accept the word of the council or at least their advice on many things. Of course, it retains the same potency as it did back then. I think Sonic just exposed the flaw in all our plans."

"Isn't this normally the other way round?" Tails grinned at the inside joke.

""Hey, come on bud, I have a brain, I just don't use it much." Sonic framed as reply, to receive a friendly jab in the ribs from Sally.

"Well, there is the Descendants Article of Inability." Elias added, snapping his fingers as the idea came to mind. "To quote, 'If the king be unable to rule in the kingdom of madness, the monarch's eldest son shalt receive all titles and accounts in his place, to act as Regent King until the true king recovers from his ailment of the mind or passes from this world.' Does that not have possibilities? If we can prove that my father is unfit to rule the kingdom now, we can do this takeover as soon as possible. Furthermore, if he is proved incapable of ruling, he cannot invoke the Monarch's Ultimatum, as he will be seen as unfit mentally to make the decision."

A few nods of approval and muttered agreement. "So now we have at least two potential ideas." Tails concluded. "But we want as many as we can think of."

"Can't mista Sonic just beat up grandpa?" surprised all, everyone stared down at Alexis, who had apparently been paying more attention than she let on.

"I think your daughter just had a potentially brilliant idea, Megan." Tails explained in a voice that was tinged with incredulity. "Elias, would Max refuse a duel?"

Elias snorted. "I don't think he knows how to."

"Then it could work, could it not? Sonic is Prince Regent already, so the challenge would be technically a fair and noble one. If max denied the challenge we would be able to move forward with the Article of Inability, under the pretence that were he to show cowardice like this in other, more dangerous positions, it could compromise the kingdom. If he accepted, Sonic could quite rightly duel him into surrendering. He is technically royalty by merit of being married to the princess, so victory would mean he would inherit the crown on the spot. Then we could claim the right of Monarch's Ultimatum and pass it straight onto you, Elias."

"Is it me or are we getting good at overthrowing people?" Sonic slapped his old friend on the back as best he could.

* * *

_"Robotnik doesn't like giving up, does he?"_

_"I don't think he gets the idea."_

_"Well, we just keep trying until he gets the message, eh?"_

* * *

"I'm bored."

"You always are. Go break something, I don't care."

"Whatever, emo."

"It's nihilist. Get it right if you're going to say it at all."

"Do you think I give a shit?"

"Keep this up and you will very soon wish you did. You know how much pain I can inflict on you."

"Is this why you asked me to show? So you could mouth off at me?"

"No, that's just a little extra. No, how would you like to cause Sonic some real pain?"

"Oh?"

"Listening now, aren't you? Thought you might like the sound of that."

"I would kill you, but that would be wasting a plan."

"Yea, whatever. Curb that outrageous and futile bloodlust for a moment and listen. I have an idea that's going to piss off most of the freedom fighters and if you're lucky you might get some pussy action before that dysfunction kicks in."

"Fuck you."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm straight – and I already have a girl. Now, listen…"


	3. War is Never Won i

"So we all know what we're doing?"

"Yea, Sonic, you and Sally make the challenge, Elias, you and Megan can be the authority on the laws if needs be. I'll just be standing by to make sure nothing underhand is going on…besides this, of course." Tails clarified, as the small party made their way to the palace. Three days ago they had agreed to topple the authority, and now it was time to put things into practise. "Sonic, you remember what you have to say?"

"Yea, chill dude, I got this!" he paused mid-step, pointing one finger ahead dramatically, "King Maximilian-" a hand clamped over his mouth, halting anything further.

"I don't think we need to declare it in the high street, Sonic." Tails stated bluntly, shaking his head. "Wait for the proper audience." He waited until Sonic nodded in agreement before lowering his hand.

The rest of the walk was made in silence. Alexis had been left in the care of one of Megan's friends – they hadn't thought it wise to take her into what would potentially be a battle zone. Tails remedied that, it would definitely be a battle with Sonic doing the fighting. After this, back to Knothole, to sort everything out…there was a lot to do.

The guards admitted them to the castle – they were duty-bound to obey anyone of royalty, and with both blood-descendants of the current monarch and their married partner, you couldn't find more royalty in one place. Tails heard the whispered commands down the communication relays as every guard on active duty was alerted to the priority defence entering the palace. They had no idea what was going to happen. Of course, that was the idea. They remained silent until the throne room, but when the doors closed behind them, it all started.

The old king sat on his throne, surrounded by an aura of smugness that was quite unbecoming of him. His customary royal guard stood to either side, weapons at rest and golden masks impassive. The faces behind the mask tracked the five Mobians as they approached, but made no move to prevent it – they may have, if not for the presence of two of the most proficient chaos adepts on Mobius.

"You missed the funeral, Elias." Typical – the first words out of his father's mouth were ones of scorn. At the same time, it was a complete and utter lie, and everyone knew it.

"I was there, _dad_" he replied, not keeping the venom from his voice, "You cannot put the blame to me if you didn't look."

That was one of the many reasons that Tails was thankful for having the crown heirs by his side. Personally he couldn't do anything that went against the king's plan without being accused of treason. It had been the reason for all the cloak and dagger beforehand. The same was not true for Elias. While he was still bound by common law against murder and theft and the like, he was free of all legislation concerning the king and crown. Insults directed at his father were always interpreted as internal affairs, to be contained within the crown family and not within the red-tape.

"I must have been focussing on more important things."

"So family is no longer important?" Sonic started – this was where he came in, "Come on Max, I was at that funeral, I saw you, and you barely looked at anything apart from your watch! You were too worried about your next board meeting to even care about your wife's death!"

"I don't see how it should concern you, Sonic. You're not family."

"Just because I didn't need you to end up alive doesn't mean I'm family, or does Sally not count anymore? I'm married to her, in case you hadn't noticed, or do you not remember standing in the wedding either?"

"There's no need to be so defensive, Sonic." Even now, acting insufferably calm, he was trying to shove the subject and blame onto someone else. Sonic had his script, however, and continued, implacable.

"Come on then, how about this? You're ignoring your family, so who can tell what's next?" the smirk running across the hero's face showed quite clearly he was enjoying this. "Ignoring little things, like paying attention at a funeral, what if this starts happening at work? Can we really have a king who's just going to start ignoring his responsibilities?"

Max's eyes narrowed at the blue hedgehog. He couldn't really see where he was going with all this, but he had an idea…

"And you are any more suited? You spend all your time running through the woodland, partaking in meaningless snowboarding competitions, and you have the nerve to question my ruling?" It was all Tails could to do hide his glee. The man had fallen almost completely into the trap. Sonic's jibing had hit a nerve, and the older man had struck out in completely the wrong way. It was time to clinch this.

Sonic made his finale. "You know, now that I think about it, I reckon I would make a better king than you, Max. Yea, I'm not exactly old and wrinkled enough yet, but at least I don't let people down. When Alicia died, I was there when Sal needed me, and when Antoine and Bunnie needed her, she was there for them. I can't exactly speak for everyone, but I don't give up on people. I'm not just going to give up on those who trust me just because I'm a bit bored. At least if I were king I might not be as experienced, but as you can see I know people who are, but at least the people I ruled could count on me for their support." He stopped his pacing, facing Max resolutely across the short distance between him and the raised dais the throne rested upon. He had faced a mad genius at least twice now, but even then, he had to admit this was a bit shaky. It was kind of exciting, dangerous, overthrowing the old man.

"King Maximilian Acorn, as is my right as a member of the royal family, I challenge you to trial by combat for the crown of the Acorn kingdom."

The words, the thought, hit the king like a thunderbolt, and he visibly lurched at the idea. It made sense now…Sonic's insults and jibes usually petered out when he realised there wasn't very far he could go with things, but this time he had done it. He hadn't worked out where this was going – he had been talking to Sonic, where could it have gone – until it was too late. It was masterful, a plan laid out by all those who stood in front of him. Tails was not of royal blood by direct descent or marriage, but he couldn't prove the treason, for the only possible witnesses to agree or deny the claim were all against him. He couldn't do anything about it anyway, unless he was victorious in the duel. Another member of the royal family would be called upon to choose the weapon, another factor he could not allow – they would all favour Sonic's weapon of choice: himself. Therefore he could not accept the challenge, for he would either die or be disgraced. He could not deny the challenge, for it would only prove Sonic's points, every single one of them.

He was momentarily aware of the guards either side of him. They had not moved. They all knew procedure – this was out of their jurisdiction. Well, he only had one choice, besides…

He began to clap. Slowly, a slight smile creasing his age-old features. "Well done, Sonic. Well done. You have me over a barrel, as the saying goes. Well-played, all of you, but tell me, Tails, how did you manage it?"

"Excuse me?" Tails blinked, looking up at him. "I was on my way here to discuss the current state of repairs on the walls, and what we could do to strengthen the defences if this was to happen again. I saw the others on my way here, and they suggested I accompany them. I'm afraid I knew nothing of this until now." He hoped his guise had worked. It had almost caught him – this last-ditch attempt – if Tails had said anything remotely concerning the coup, it would have come apart. His participation would have shown treason against the king, at which point they would have all been arrested, royalty or no.

Max cursed inwardly. Ah well, he hadn't expected it to work. "Well then, it seems you will not have to. Sonic, you played this well, and I can't see any shame in this." He pushed himself off from the throne, calmly plodding down the steps to Sonic, and offering him a quick bow. "If you can continue to play your cards that well, then the kingdom would suit you. I concede the challenge, you win, Sonic."

It took several seconds for it to sink in what had happened. Just like that…Maximilian Acorn had been dethroned, Sonic the Hedgehog was now king of the Acorn Kingdom.

"Just like that?" it had been ridiculously easy. It didn't feel right. Sonic felt like he was missing something.

"Just like that, Sonic. What was there that I could do? It didn't matter what I did, I would have lost the crown either way, and I try to minimise my losses. At least this way I still keep my life."

"Well in that case…" Sonic looked back at Elias. "I exercise my right of the Monarch's Ultimatum to hereby hand the crown to Elias Acorn." Then he looked back at Max. "I'm gonna be honest, I almost forgot that last half of the script." Then with a movement the previous king could not follow, he snatched the crown from his head and deposited it upon Elias'. "Now that's all done, I'm hungry. Can ya get the cook to bring up some 'dogs, bro?"

Elias smiled at the comment in such a pressing scenario. Five years on and married, chilli dogs were still Sonic's favourite dish, but Sally had managed to get him to eat other sorts of things as well – she didn't want to kiss him, or do anything else with him – when he smelt like a barbecue. But it was those inane, often contextual comments that reminded everyone there was always room for humour.

"Consider it done." He clapped Sonic on the shoulder. "This took surprisingly less time than I expected, and we pulled it off thanks to you. I think that's the least you deserve." He glanced over the hedgehog's shoulder at his dad, who was following the conversation quietly. "Don't worry dad, at least you don't have to go to all that trouble of finding another heir now, eh?"

"I didn't have a choice. I doubt either of you will run the kingdom as well as I did."

"I disagree." Tails stepped forward. This was where he got to have his fun. "I can say this freely now, as it is no longer treason. You are no longer king, but I can tell you that Elias will run the kingdom far better than you could. You did a good job, you held it together, but you were hardly a good king. Your concerns were directed into the preservation of your rule and your ideals, so you neglected your subjects to those ends. Elias will not."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"He's not you." It wasn't even a logical argument. It was worthless, but Tails couldn't stand Max, and now he didn't have to, he didn't have to explain himself. "Now, if you will all excuse me, I have some more personal business I need to take care of back at Knothole. I bid you all farewell and will see you in time. Are you coming, Sonic?" and just like that it was over. Tails was already moving on, thinking of more pressing concerns.

"I'm gonna make sure everyone's cool here before we head back, bro. See ya back home." He waved with a smile as the fox turned and left, waving one hand behind him to show he had heard and that he didn't have a problem with it.

He left the throne room without another word, his thoughts moving ahead. He did have a personal matter in Knothole, which when he got back, would no longer be so personal.

* * *

"You-"

"Yes, I'm breaking up with you, dumping you. Whatever you like to call it. It's _over._"

Amy slid to the floor on her knees, staring into her hands. Tails looked down at her, uncaring. She wasn't upset about the breakup, she was upset about the benefit it had.

"But-"

"Don't bother, Amy. Don't try thinking up any petty lies or excuses, I'm not in the mood for it. If I wasn't happy that my other plans had worked I probably wouldn't still be standing here. If I was unhappy, I doubt you would be." He paused for a moment, letting it sink in, before he continued. "You seem to forget that I'm a genius. I know more than you do ten times over, and you think I wouldn't catch on to your plan? Come on Amy, the jealously ploy with another boyfriend doesn't work, and in the rare circumstances it does, the other doesn't already have a partner, married to them, no less. I knew it from the start, and believe me, it was sickening. Truly sickening. You want to know why I put up with it? The sly grins you gave Sonic over my shoulder, the exaggerated praise when I performed even the most mundane tasks? It's not my ego – I'm not so self-centred and shallow as you are. I did it because I knew it kept you out of Sonic and Sally's hair while they were going through a rough patch. Now that's over, I don't see any reason to allow you to maintain this farce any longer."

"Tails…"

"Don't, Amy Just don't." he flicked his fingers, a chaos spear flickering in his open palm. "Don't even think about lying to me this time. In fact, I think it would be best if you got out of my sight now before I do something I may end up regretting. I doubt I would, but the future is unpredictable. Go. I've got more important things to do that listen to your grovelling." It was heartless, so it looked, anyway. Tails preferred to think of it as 'tough love'. She had been the underhand one, he was just making it sure that she never tried it again. He waited until she stumbled from his room before lowering his hand, the chaos spear sputtering and dying.

"That was cruel." He looked down the bed, Nicole was resting on the pillow, relaxed, but her expression was scolding.

"The truth can be so. It should have hardly come as a surprise to her."

"Even so, to just go cold on her like that? I remember a similar conversation with Fiona."

"I wasn't trying to push Fiona away. She didn't need to learn a lesson." Tails poured himself a small glass of some nondescript drink from a bottle on his side-table. "Amy did."

"Well then why did you have to say it like that? I expect she will feel no longer welcome in the freedom fighters."

"Honestly I don't care what she thinks. How she interprets things is not my concern. If she decided to up and leave, so be it. I don't think we'll miss her very much."

"Well, you're all heart, aren't you?"

"Don't try the guilt-trip on me, Nicole. I know all about your viciousness in combat, remember? If I am heartless, then so are you."

"Yes, but I'm a computer." She replied simply, disappearing.

* * *

Miles pushed the door open slowly, wary of any intruders. His time alive had not made him paranoid, merely very aware of how many people were actually out to get him. They were all imbeciles not worthy of his time, but it always paid to employ a measure of caution. The room was empty – good, and his sense wasn't picking up anyone either. He crossed the well-furnished dining room, scooping up a little holographic data-pad with one gloveless hand. Half an eye on the schematics, Miles took a snack from one of the cupboards and turned to leave. He stopped, aware that someone was blocking his path.

"It's been two fuckin' weeks since you said you had a damn plan. When the hell are we going to do something?" the other demanded angrily. Miles sighed…he still had anger management issues.

"I've been waiting and watching. Your brain might not be able to come to terms with something such as patience, but a plan that works does require some time to get everything in place. I'm going to take another look tonight, and see how promising things look." He stated facts, no more, no less. He didn't need to apologise to this buffoon, he didn't need to placate him or console him. He would wait as long as it suited Miles.

"Let you stare into that fucking ring for another night, while I sit here dying of boredom? Give me a fucking break."

Miles lowered the data-pad, taking a proper look at Scourge. The green hedgehog was just as stupid as he was yesterday. A mirror image of Sonic the hedgehog, just as Miles was of Tails, Scourge showed some difference to Sonic. He was green, while Sonic was quite obviously blue. He looked like a bad recolour some nursery kid had drawn at age two. He also saw some need to wear a leather biker's jacket with flames on the back and at the cuffs. Miles was sure it was meant to be some statement of masculinity – he thought it just made Scourge look ridiculously camp.

Miles, on the other hand, looked much like his counterpart. He was taller, however, by a couple of inches, and unlike Tails, who trimmed his claws to a more reasonable length, Miles merely filed them into points.

Moebius was an alternate reality to Mobius, and frankly Miles hated it almost as much as he hated Scourge. It was just another lump of rock and organic matter hurtling through space on a mission to nowhere, and being the only superior being on the planet – he felt – it wasn't exactly a very fitting place for him to live. After all, if life just led to oblivion, he might as well spend his life somewhere even mildly more interesting than where he had to live now. It was such a pity that the place he wanted to live in was already inhabited, and he didn't really want to go to all the bother of clearing them out…so he let morons like Scourge do all the heavy lifting.

"Scourge, I'm assuming that you still want to be alive at the end of this." Miles told him after a few moments' contemplation, "so if you want to cling on to that pitiful existence you call a life, then you will let me do this the right way. As much as I despise you, I'd rather not have you get yourself killed worthlessly. When you die, I want it to be beneficial to me and I want to be there to see it happen." Miles' expression did not change, nor did his tone move from the monotone, as he pushed past Scourge and out into the corridor.

In truth, he already knew what he wanted to do. He already had the targets, he had the firepower…he could, in reality, quite easily do this on his own. It might be a little harder to do the coercion, but nevertheless it would still be quite possible. Pissing around with Scourge was just for a little extra entertainment. He still hadn't decided when he would kill him – it was always so hard to choose. Maybe he would give his counterpart the pleasure of getting rid of him; he wouldn't have to clean the blood off afterwards, and the other would believe he had actually accomplished something.

"Hey!" Scourge called from behind him. "I haven't finished with you yet!"

Miles carried on walking, seemingly ignoring the comment. He heard footsteps behind him, counted to four under his breath, then swung round with a closed fist.

He couldn't have timed it better – his fist collided with Scourge's chin, and the green hedgehog stumbled sideways under the force of the blow, spitting blood. Miles watched him lean against the wall, looking at him with no apparent concern. "I'm finished talking to you. It doesn't matter what the fuck you want. Next time you try that I'll break your jaw."

Scourge spat a little blood but said nothing as Miles turned from him to walk away, muttering softly and reading from the data pad. His plan relied on Scourge being gullible enough to take the bait, and his target being sufficiently broken so to go along with it. It didn't really matter if it worked or not, either, it would accomplish something useful either way.

"Master. It happened."

Once again Miles tore his eyes away from his work, though this sight was a little more welcome than the last. Anima, the Moebius computer that passed for Nicole, was in front of him. A.N.I.M.A stood for Artificial & Neural-enabled Intelligence Master Automaton. The term was not quite accurate, but he wanted a name that didn't just terminate in a string of consonants. If he was going to screw around with lives, he would do it eloquently.

"Good. Have you taken care of everything else?"

"Yes."

"In that case, we can begin. Don't tell the green smear for a few hours though; I want to watch him squirm a bit. Tell him by the end of today, but make it awkward."

"Yes master." The hologram shimmered and disappeared before Miles sighed slowly. She was still running on basic. His schedule was too busy to be doing constant updates, and he was paying for it in a lack of useful support. Anima could only really properly follow commands completely set to her and the personality template she used was still flawed. He didn't have any shame in admitting that Nicole was far more advanced – she had been upgraded by his counterpart, and though the kid didn't seem to get reality quite as much, he was still damn smart and had more time on his hands. Maybe he would spend a little time working on Anima after this little plan succeeded or failed. Or maybe he would just scrap it and build a new one. Writing new software was sometimes easier than integrating old software.

Hmm. Well, a problem for a later date.

For now…for now there would be some more work.

Miles' route had taken him to a room below the complex, secreted away from the idiotic hedgehog he shared his home with. An operating slab, rows of surgical equipment and then further banks of electronics and other mechanical equipment. His laboratory, no doubt a more macabre setting than the one Tails worked in, he was sure of it.

Almost the moment he stepped into the room his left eye lost focus with the other, and began to flit around the room, going through the inventory. A robotic eye – one of the first enhancements he had made on himself. It fused flesh with robotics, and used the same electrical signals that passed through his brain…in short, Electro-magnetic pulses wouldn't work on it. All of his bionics were the same, integrated almost directly to him. It had come at a price. Not his, oh no, the person from whom this price was extracted lay on the operating table, mind blanked by Anima before the procedure had begun.  
Half a dozen Anima hard-light holograms bustled about the table, methodically butchering the poor Moebian with surgical care, somehow preserving his life in the process. He looked like an explosion frozen in time, flesh and fur held around him, strung together by ropy bits of glistening wet sinew, and Miles took it all in as he approached the table, the holograms shifting to allow him space.

"Well, you certainly don't look well, Matthias." He chuckled softly.

Even though deeply unconscious, the Moebian alternative of Elias Acorn seemed to hear his words, and the living tissue shuddered.


	4. War is Never Won ii

Damn Tails! Always had to be so obstinate and depressing, always working things out a little too early…but he said he had known from the start…piss off! He couldn't have done. He was smart, but he wasn't that smart. No-one bloody was! Now what was she supposed to do? No-one else was as close to Sonic as he was, so it kind of ruined her chances. He couldn't be the only way to do this!

What did he know anyway? That fox-boy had never had a proper girlfriend, so how should he know how things work?

Amy was tempted, seriously tempted, to start smashing things indiscriminately with her hammer, if it were not for the presence of Nicole she may well have done. Instead she settled for sitting on her bed, hands balled into fists, clutching the bed sheets. Tails was right, of course – that had been her reasoning. She wanted to be with Sonic, and this had been the best plan she had been able to come up with. She didn't make plans – she just swung the hammer at whatever she was told to!

"Surely it is not all that bad?" Nicole questioned, "Either way, this will not solve anything."

"And what would you know?" Amy snapped in anger.

"More than you would think." Nicole's tone stayed serene. "I know that no-one will want you to sit here, festering in your room. Whatever you may think of Tails, I know he would not want that."

"He said he didn't care what I did. I'm going for a walk." Amy pushed herself off the bed and went to the wardrobe, exchanging the impractical red dress for a pair of jeans and a white top, as well as a pair of camouflage boots.

"The forest, I take it then. When should I say you'll be back?" Nicole wasn't exactly happy about her wandering about on her own, but the hammer followed her and in the end, the AI didn't want to make a scene. Better let her go and blow off steam somewhere away from civilisation.

"Dunno." Amy mumbled by way of reply. "Bye." The door closed behind her.

The avatar of Nicole sighed slowly. She'd be back by dinner – she knew how to use that weapon, but she was no survivalist. All she had to do now was make sure Telera still prepared enough food for everybody.

Or not.

* * *

"And how do I know she's not going to try and break my neck with that hammer of hers?"

"Afraid of a hammer, Scourge?"

"I'm-"

"Of course you are. She's despondent, an easy target, and her circumstances make it even easier. Just chat her up like you normally do, but just make sure she gets back here. Once she's within the castle, I can mess around with a couple of things, make sure she doesn't leave unless we want her to."

"Mind control?" Scourge wasn't exactly up with all the know-how, but it wasn't a hard guess.

"Well, duh. What did you think I was going to do? Big chains? Electric leash? Mind control works better, especially with a mind as blunt as hers. Just do what you spend all your life doing, and get her within these walls. After that, a few hours with Anima and you can have her back for whatever you want."

"So, when do I start?" Scourge's hate for the fox was momentarily brushed aside with the potential for fun that was rearing ahead. He rubbed his hands together eagerly, eyes glancing towards the giant warp-ring hooked up in the torture-chamber-like laboratory.

"Are you still here?" Miles ran his claws across a keypad, entering a string of binary-coded commands to the machinery hooked up to the warp ring and the room rumbled as power began to be directed towards the contraption, drawn from an Anarchy Beryl at the other end of the room. It wasn't really natural to jump dimensions, particularly not from the secondary dimensions to the main one, so the wall of reality oft pushed against those who tried. Miles pushed harder. He knew how to break through the dimensional wall, and doubtless he would refine his methods whenever he got the time. For now, he would glean some enjoyment from watching Scourge go through compression as he passed through.

That was the problem thus far – it hurt to go through. If you didn't have enough willpower you were wont to wet yourself as well. Refinement would solve that problem in time, after all, the process had not been needed and thus hadn't been devised nor had it been tested until recently. This would most certainly be interesting.

In a momentary flair for the dramatic, Miles slammed his hand down on the final activation protocol, and the chamber vibrated as the colossal energies required were fired into the ring. Eldritch lightning flared inside the spinning circle, the wall behind it fading, replaced by the jungles of Mobius.

"If this kills me…" Scourge began.

"Then what? You'll be a corpse. I very much doubt you'll be able to do anything if it does kill you. But to put your little feral brain at ease, I didn't create this to kill you. There are far more creative methods than inter-dimensional cascade. When I want to kill you, you'll know it. Now hurry up and get out of my sight before I do decide to rid myself of you."

Scourge growled something under his breath but avoided saying anything directly. He wanted to lash out, but something twigged in his brain that he knew that if he did, he might lose out on something. To he jumped, through the portal and into the other world. Miles watched the transition, the compression taking hold as he passed through the veil from one world to another.

That was the thing with all those dimensions – each occupies a different reality, and each body born is only built for their own reality, and as such the pain comes from the body at first being unable to adapt to this new law of being. In reality it never does, and a body can only last so long in another dimension without proper tending. Without such tending, a body just sort of…fell apart, subsumed by the dimension.

To Scourge, it felt as if all of his organs were being simultaneously gripped by burning hands, and he had the distinct feeling of vomit rising. Fighting back the urge to empty his stomach onto the forest floor, he choked the feeling back down, sure that Miles was still watching and determined to not let him have the satisfaction.

Sure enough, he was. He gave the green hedgehog one last message before the portal closed. "She knows that you exist, but she doesn't know what you're like. You've got until sunset – get moving." There was a sound of rushing wind, and then Scourge was alone in the forest with his biker jacket and any nearby animals.

Picking stray twigs off his jacket and grunting in the aftermath of the pain, Scourge strode off into the forest, after his prize.

* * *

"Yo, Nicole, where's Amy got to?" Sonic queried over dinner. He wasn't particularly concerned beyond that of a friend, but her was curious. She didn't normally miss a meal.

"She went out a couple of hours ago." The AI replied. There was a strange, detached quality to her voice.

"Kinda strange for her to miss dinner, ain't it?"

"She was feeling unhappy. She wanted to go calm down somewhere."

"She's breaking stuff in the forest, Sonic." Tails cut in.

"Why's that?" He chewed absent-mindedly at the food in front of him.

"I dumped her earlier."

Sonic's eyes widened slightly, but otherwise he didn't move. "harsh, dude. I thought you two were getting along great."

"You missed it then. She was dating me to get to you, and I was only putting up with it because I didn't want her to. Speaking of which, you owe me a favour – or a girlfriend, whichever one is easier to get." Tails didn't seem affected at all by the event, as made clear by his matter-of-fact explanation. "She'll be fine, Sonic." He replied to the hedgehog's unasked question, "Just let her blow off steam. Her idea failed – expected, really – so she's bound to be angry. If she isn't back by morning, we'll go look for her. She won't run away unless it gets her closer to you."

"Dude! Did you just drop her or something?"

"If you really need to know, I told her that what she was doing was sickening, and I didn't want to waste my time on it anymore. I have no doubt she'll try again, and again. She'll keep trying for source-knows how long. Don't ask me about it Sonic; I really don't care much about the whole thing."

"She's going to take it hard, Tails. You sure that was such a good idea?" Lupin rumbled from across the table. "I mean yea, it's good of you helping Sonic out an' all, but…"

"I'm not going to repent for something that was right, Lupin. Besides, I wouldn't think it matters a great deal. She won't last out there; she'll be back by morning for the usual. Maybe she'll hate me for a while, I don't really mind. I'm stronger than her or that hammer, and I did the right thing. I have nothing to fear."

_"But does she?"_ Telera signed, one-handed, as she sat down with her own plate. _"There are many who would pay to get their hands on a freedom fighter, and more who would use her against us."_

* * *

Another tree exploded in a shower of bark and wood as the hammer crushed another trunk. As the oak fell, Amy crushed its length with more strokes, then the roots with a final strike. More sawdust.

She swung indiscriminately, hitting anything that came within range. Mostly trees now; the animals had long-since learned it was a good idea to keep back when she was like this. Pausing, she rested the hammer on the ground to catch her breath, and then she heard it.

"Hey, girl, you out here?"

She knew that voice. It sounded like…Sonic? But it was different, it was sharper, harsher, but it sounded similar, and that was good enough.

"Over her!" she returned the call, frowning as the shout echoed through the trees – it would be impossible for him to find her that way. "Just follow the damage!" she added hurriedly.

The forest fell silent save the natural sounds for a minute or so, until she heard the trampling of grass and snapping of twigs as something made its way towards her. It stumbled into the clearing, and Amy got her first look. Whoever it was, it wasn't Sonic…unless Sonic had taken to painting himself green all of a sudden. Well, it definitely wasn't Sonic, and she was not going to hug him just yet. After the Shadow incident…well, she paid more attention these days.

"Who the hell are you?" she snapped.

"Whoa! Whoa, easy! Chill girl, I'm a friend." The hedgehog raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Then why are you stalking me?"

"I'm not! Geez! I heard someone crashing around out here, thought I'd come take a look. I'm only in this dimension for a bit, so…"

"Wait, slow down. Dimension?" This was new.

"Yea, totally different world. Place called Moebius, you'd love it there. See, thing is, I'm Scourge. Like Sonic, but from another world." He avoided grimacing. He didn't like comparing himself to Sonic any day of the week, but it was the easiest way to do this. "Listen, I can't stay long, so…you want me to show you around?"

"Wait a sec, you're a total stranger. You're asking me to run off with you…_why?_"

"Yea, see, babe, you're gorgeous, and I can't walk outa here without a gem like you. Besides, I bet Sonic would be way jealous." Apparently that was the clincher. Miles had said that was what she was so up about.

"What? Ya think?" the hammer dropped again.

"Are you kidding, babe? Me and Sonic, we do not get along, no joke. Listen, he would be hell as jealous if you and me were…you know…" he winked.  
"I dunno…"

"Hey, listen, come back to my place a bit, get to know me, decided then?" Scourge knew the way to play this. Picking up chicks was a habit now. Heh, this one was being even more of an airhead that he'd expected. Way too easy. "Come on, you're getting cold out here, my place is warm."

"Awwww…alright then." She blushed. Whatever it was, she was enjoying this. "Just for tonight though, ya hear?"

"Yea, yea, no probs. Listen, we have to go. I've got until sundown before I have to leave. We should probably move now."

"Umm…alright."

* * *

"So…what?"

"Inter-dimensional breaching. My sensors have been picking up a spike, twice now."

"I repeat…what?"

"Teleportation." Tails finally gave up trying to explain.

"Why didn't you just say so?" Sonic huffed.

"Because it's more complicated than that. It's not like moving from one place to another, it's trying to throw yourself through a wall ten times harder than Megatal."

"Ouch."

"It's kind of complicated…I'm guessing you're probably not the person to talk to about this. Listen, there's no point trying now, but in the morning, you think you could do a circuit through the forest, check for any anomalies?"

"Alright…" Sonic twiddled his thumbs, peering round Tails' lab. "What am I lookin' for?"

"Depends. If it's an open portal, it's going to be pretty obvious. If there isn't one any more, you should be able to smell burning fur around where the portal was."

"Well, be careful, if you find an open portal."

"What's to worry about?"

"Well, I don't know many beings that can jump dimensions. Miles is one of them, and if he's getting involved in anything, Scourge will be there too. I'm not so worried about our green compatriot, but Miles is dangerous. He will kill you if he thinks you're getting in his way."

"And if I'm not?"

"Then it will all depend on how he's feeling."

* * *

"So, like, this is your place? Kinda creepy."

"Yea. Whatever." Now he was back in his own place, Scourge was no longer obliged to be particularly nice to this girl. He raised his voice, calling out into the lab. "Hey Miles, I'm back! Get out here!"

"Ah…hold on." The voice came back, and for a few moments there was the sound of clutter being moved, then…Tails? Strode calmly from another section of the vast lab. "Oh god's sake…you didn't bring a Mobian back, did you Scourge, for fuck's sake…I keep telling you…just piss off."

"Hey! The hell!" the hedgehog retorted. He hadn't expected this.

"Just fuck off, you screwed up again. Go, before I make you." Miles' hands open, within them resting scores of tiny needles. "I have to talk with this girl."  
Once again, Scourge was backed into a corner, and he sprinted off, grumbling all manner of curses under his breath.

"My apologies for my friend, he overreacts sometimes." Miles bowed low. "My name is Miles. I expect I look similar to a friend of yours."

"Tails?"

"That's the one. I'm sure Scourge has already explained his situation with Sonic – well, I am our version of Tails, to put it one way. I'm sorry I was so vulgar back there, but Scourge always seems to forget a few things. You see, you're not meant to be in this dimension, technically. Your mind is a little off-balance, you probably feel sick from the portal. You see, you're only meant to stay in your own world." He turned, slipping one hand around Amy's arm and leading her away. "As soon as you make the crossover, you start to die, alarmingly fast actually. I've been developing some things to prolong the time allowed during the change, otherwise it would be limited to but a few hours."

"What do you need to do?" Amy probably should have been curious about all this, but she was terrified. The possibility of dying in another world!

"My computer just needs to make a few changes to your subconscious, that bit really far back in your mind. It just needs to tell your brain that there is no problem being where you are. To put it simply, it tricks your brain into thinking you're still in the right place. It will only take a few minutes, and once we've sorted that out, you should be able to come and go as you please. Is that a problem?"

"I'm going to die if I don't! Just get on with it!" she snapped, a little more harshly than she intended.

"Very well then. Anima!" Miles called, remaining a little too calm for this supposed time of urgency. He waited a few moments, then entered the operating room. It had been cleared and cleaned from Matthias' short stay, and the man himself had been reassembled. No doubt he would be in pain for several days, but no matter, he wasn't keeping him alive for his comfort. A single Anima hologram stood at the ready, wearing not the surgical robes but a pleasant blue dress. "Lie down, and we'll get started."

Amy obeyed, more readily than he had hoped. "Can we get this over with?"

"Just hold still. I'm giving you something to dull the pain – it's not the most pleasant, having someone poking around your brain…" his words faded into a think mass of humming that overtook Amy, the anaesthetic taking hold, and within moments she was asleep, and Miles was grinning.

"She really is that stupid, then. Anima, you can begin."

"Yes, master. What severity of procedure would you specify?"

"For now, memory and emotional suppression, along with standard loyalty to me. Ensure her memories remain intact – I want a card up my sleeve if I need it."

"Confirmed, beginning procedure." From the operating tray, Anima plucked a needle with a flat interface module on the head, and lightly pierced the forehead with it, passing through the skull but not the brain. The needle was made of Megatal, so was so thin as for the hole to be invisible. "Inception beginning." She reported, and placed her hand on the interface panel.

The item was a special piece of technology – it allowed for safe neural interface between organic and electronic surfaces, and now Anima was using it to hack into Amy's mind.

The hedgehog-girl was enjoying it, though she didn't realise. The dreamscape the sedative created a mind-map drawing from the more enjoyable moments, realising a dream that often seemed more real than reality itself. That was, of course, until Anima took over.

Amy was enjoying herself – a Utopian Knothole of her mind's innermost ideals, everything was great, but it still felt wrong. Things wouldn't come to her…she couldn't remember how she had gotten here.

She went numb. She couldn't move – things started to melt, falling into one mass of useless information, a stream of inconstant factors…memories jumped around, floated past her vision, bodiless body…flickers of memories, skipping past…something else. Foreign, something she hadn't felt before, blackening, suffocating, _intoxicating…_

"Did it work?" She heard Miles' voice, but it didn't seem to apply to her, and moments later she forgot it. Anima's work had been thorough.

"She will obey orders until she runs out of strength to do so." The reply was factual, monotone, "She has awareness, but will not remember anything we do." Again, the words faded out of memory seconds later.

"Stand up." The order was directed at the girl on the operating table, and she reacted immediately, pushing herself off the table onto her feet. Miles paced around her slowly, inspecting the damage. The procedure was less damaging than a lobotomy, and far less noticeable. If necessary the process was also reversible, if Miles wanted to extract memories or other information from a subject."

"Now what, master?" Anima leaned over his shoulder.

"Take Amy to her room – Scourge can do what he wants with her. Then we wait for our Mobian friends to appear."

"Yes, master." The hologram took Amy by the arm and led her away, the Mobian hedgehog plodding silently along with vacant eyes. She no longer perceived anything with a conscious mind, operating under a strict mind-set fitted when her original memories and functions were supressed. No hardware, no instant-fix. Anyone attempting to undo the damage without the original programming would have to delve into Amy's mind to fix it, with the risk of causing even more damage to the neural sensitivity.

Miles watched her go, a second Anima materialising beside him.

"Compatible personality detected." Said Anima, "should I attempt assimilation?"

"Negative." The idea almost made Miles shudder. He knew about Amy's personality – having a similar mind-set in his computer, which he would see almost every waking moment? Such a life would be worse than his current situation – no, he would build a personality core for Anima, and for now, that was really what he might as well do. He had spare time while the Mobians searched for their missing comrade; he might as well put that time to good use. "Anima, deactivate security protocols in your central mainframe and prepare for program modification."

"Yes master."


	5. Renewed Assault i

"So…what? There's nothing in there?"

"Nothing. I could have built her this simple, but stealing one is just as easy. Do what you like with her – we have her, and that's all we needed her for. She's gone, our Mobian friends will eventually find out we were the ones who took her…and from there on the real fun begins." Miles clamped one hand round Scourge's shoulder, the claws biting into the meat and muscle near his neck. "Can I rely on you to cope with Sonic when I need you to, or do you need training wheels for that as well?"

The laboratory was as grim and depressing as ever. Racks of tools shook, calling quick chimes with each footstep the two Moebians took, twisting slightly on their hooks and creating fragmented patterns around the room from the briefest catching of light. Close-fitting panels that formed the floor rebounded the noises of their footsteps and conversation, multiplying their voices were they to rise above a whisper, and the newly-cleaned operating table beckoned Miles constantly in the back of his mind. The damage he could do to Scourge...dissect an anarchy adept…

"Don't worry yourself about it." The green hedgehog winced slightly and shrugged off the hand, grinning condescendingly. "There won't be much left when I'm done."

"Just kill the bastard and I might stay my hand at the dissection. Go ahead and get your hopes up."

"Piss off."

"Feel free to. Go on; go enjoy your new toy and get out of my sight." He'd have to be dealt with soon. Scourge wanted to kill him equally as much and you can't afford to be looking over one's shoulder all the time if plans are to succeed. Maybe Sonic would kill him. That would solve that problem – with a most unlikely ally. Before Scourge could frame a reply, his hand shot out, punching the hedgehog hard enough to stagger him. "You're still here."

"Bastard." The blow hadn't even winded him – it wasn't meant to, just prove appoint.

"The clock is ticking. You've got five seconds to get out of my lab or you're going to be on that operating table, and I don't think I'll bother sticking you back together."

"I hate you." He snapped in one last spiteful moment, then sprinted from the store. Miles watched his shape transfer from solid to blur and disappear from sight. No doubt he would later claim he was only eager to get started on his prize, but it was fear – Miles could smell it on him. Scourge was terrified of him, of what he could do, blinded by his vain and so unable to admit it.

"Anima?" he asked the hologram next to him.

"Yes, sir?"

"What is the status on the Anarchy adept project?"

"One other adept located." Anima stated, reciting the facts like a well-read litany, and Miles' eyes lit up slightly, then faded as Anima continued. "Jalrus proved uncooperative. When force was employed, he proved impossible to subdue. A second attempt would not be advisable. No other adepts located."  
"Any progress made without subjects with which to experiment?"

"Several working theories devised. No theories able to be proven without live subject. Search for available anarchy adept in progress."

Miles swore. Jalrus was the guardian of the Master Anarchy Emerald, and one of the most obstinate and stubborn person he had ever met. The only other adept found, and it had to be him – things were looking more and more hopeless for progress. "And the non-adept assimilation?"

"All but one test subjects have proven susceptible to the standard loyalty programs. Exception was terminated when resistance was shown. Seventeen subjects showed immediate deterioration when subjected to anarchy irradiation. Seven showed deterioration within two days. One subject is currently stable. Subject is being monitored closely for signs of progression or deterioration."

Well, that was good. If this lone subject made some progress, he might not need to find an anarchy adept after all. They would be able to serve the purpose just as well, and the loyalty programs would mean they would cooperate quite willingly. Until then he would have to find another way to satiate his curiosity. "Bring Matthias out again. I want the anarchy scanners set up. Monitor all changes that anarchy energy does to the Moebian body. After that, retrieve Amy and run a cursory scan on her for the same effects. Keep her intact."

"Confirmed, sir." Anima nodded, and more of her shimmered into the room, most wearing the white garb of practised surgeons, two dressed as handlers for the subjects. Miles waited until Matthias had been sedated, taken from his cell and secured on the operating table before leaving. He looked the long route from his castle to his quarters, avoiding the rooms where he was sure Scourge would be humping Amy. It wasn't the most pleasant sound. Much like the Mobian counterpart, the palace was a nice enough place, well-furnished corridors, though many of the rooms were closed and unused – Miles employed no staff. Anima did that job adequately.

As he entered his room, the door shut and pressure-sealed behind him, a failsafe in case anyone tried to break in. He didn't bother stopping, just crossed to his computer station and lowered himself into the chair. He had investments and sites all over Moebius. Time to check up on one. Of the six screens arranged around him, three showed the operating room, another two scrolled information past, all being stored in vast data-reserves. The final one he opened a dialogue box with another Anima hologram, several miles away in an isolated facility.

-[Miles, sir?]-

-[I want informed progress on the surviving test subject.]-

-[Subject progressing. Subject stable. Subject has not yet experienced breakdown due to anarchy radiation. Subject is showing increased signs of anarchy activity within brain functions. Expected manifestation of anarchy power within next twenty-four hours.]-

-[Has your facility had any results concerning the discovery of any adepts since last report?]-

-[Negative.]-

-[Very well. Continue importing likely test subjects for experimentation. Immediate report in the case of another potential adept being discovered.]-

-[As you will it.]- The Anima on-screen disappeared. Miles leant back in the chair, smiling slightly. It seemed strangely fitting that the only one to be a suitable adept was Felicia.

* * *

Morning, Amy was still missing, and everyone was taking the opportunity to rub it in Tails' face. Only just out of bed and already they were harassing him about it.

"So, now what? We just wait?"

"No, Sonic, you go sprinting round the forest like I said. I told you we would look for her if she wasn't back by morning, so we will. You go jogging around, see if you can pick up any traces of anarchy energy, I'll watch from here. Now get off my back and get on with the running." He shoved Sonic from the door, pointing at the sky. "It's a nice day, sunny and partially cloudy, you should have no trouble dancing through trees."

"What's your problem today, man?" Sonic backpedalled out of reach.

"It's been two weeks since we fought a civil war, the queen died and we lost a valuable member of the team and you're asking what my problem is?" Tails snapped, then sighed. "Come on Sonic, you've seen the amount of bullshit we have to go through all the time. If Amy really is missing, it's going to involve inter-dimensional travel, and that always screws things around. Are you really saying you enjoy this life?"

"Well, buddy…" the blue hedgehog idled on the porch, scuffing his feet. "Yea, I mean, I get that some people want to settle down, find something that works…but that 'ain't me. Ya know I'm not comfortable if I'm not breaking the sound barrier. I'll never get bored of this."

"That's where you and I differ, Sonic." Tails smiled slightly at his friend. "We've been doing this all our lives, remember? I turned ten and things kicked off."

"Heh, yea. That first weapon was hilarious." Sonic clapped his hands as he recalled.

_"So, what's this do?"_

_"Really, I don't know yet. I sort of took apart an old computer and a couple of hairdryers. I don't think she actually knows I've used them yet. If the math is correct, it should be able to melt four inches of concrete at a hundred paces."_

"I'm fairly sure it fired computer parts."

"Not my greatest success." Tails shrugged. "I got better, I refined my craft. Six years and all I've been doing is fighting. I've never been in any serious relationship, just that terrible sham with Amy to keep her off your backs…I feel like I'm missing something."

"Tails…wait, no. I'm not going to spoil the surprise. You haven't worked it out yet, have fun. See ya later!" he disappeared in a cloud of dust before Tails could frame a reply. Sonic ran just because he could, the wind and the heat, trees passing by as barely more than shadows and after-images. His chaos-sense was nowhere as near as refined as Tails, but his was faster. He could take in the area in moments, his mind attuned to speed and getting things done.

Moving at speeds unmatchable, it was his paradise, and now he had a job to do. Typical. He found himself drifting, memories from long ago coming to the surface.

_"Why'd you ask me to come along? You'd be able to do it without me."_

_"Just 'cause I could, doesn't mean I want to. You an' me are pals, man. We stick together."_

_"You mean that?"_

_"Sure as hell I do! Besides, it's not like I can take apart a combot at ten years old."_

_"You saw that?"_

_"Yea. You probably shouldn't have been running round the battlefield on your own, though. Only reason I didn't get in the way is 'cause I expect you could handle yourself."_

_"Thanks. I don't get treated like an adult very often."_

_"Yea, well, I'm a good judge of character. If ya can run fast and know how to turn Buttnik's 'bots into scrap, you're fine by me."_

Damn, things had been different back then. Six years ago he had been in charge, he'd been running the show. Then Tails had grown up, grown a backbone and taken over. Sonic couldn't blame him – he was smarter by far, he knew how to do things right. Sonic just knew how to break things. But now things were only work. Tails didn't seem to know anything else anymore. Work was the top and bottom of his life now.

"Guy has to lighten up." Sonic muttered to himself, jinking avoid a copse of trees. They blurred past. Priorities. Get Amy back. Have dinner. Talk to Tails. Sounded about right, there. So, for now, concentrate on finding this portal, or whatever it was. He hadn't exactly been specific – smell burning fur and apparently it'll be nearby. Yea. That was useful.

* * *

Tails dropped into an empty seat in the living room, snatching up the remote and flicking through the channels. He was the only one there, but Nicole would no doubt interrupt soon.

"Shouldn't you be out looking for Amy?" Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

He didn't move as the hologram materialised next to him, reclining on the edge of the sofa, looking no less relaxed than he was. He took a moment more of mindless television, then switched it off. Not even five minutes of free time. Bugger.

"Sonic's out looking. He'll get the job done faster. If Amy is still in the forest, he'll return with her. If not, I'll start searching for portal residue on my augurs. Inter-dimensional gateways are so bloody awkward. No decent coordinates for arrival, you can't reliably track each side…I really don't like them."

"You don't seem to be too worried about chaos control."

"That's different. Chaos control on a standard basis is within the same field of reality. Spatial coordinates remain the same, you don't have to cope with the body disintegrating under the total lack of proper reality. Moving within your own universe has no consequence other than the possibility of coming out somewhere you didn't mean to go. Jumping dimensions is like punching a wall made of Megatal then holding it open against the gravity of a white dwarf star. Extremely painful and will probably cause swelling, rashes, or spontaneous combustion." He smiled slightly at his joke.

"Isn't that why you have me?"

Tails twisted slightly to watch her. "What are you talking about? First you start to rebuke me, now what?"

"I've had scouts watching the forest ever since last night, when you said we would wait. I have different priorities. I can confirm that Amy is in another dimension – I had sensors reading explosive amounts of anarchy energy. I couldn't track the location. I know it was within the forest, but I can't say where. Even if Sonic hits the right location, as you said there is no real saying where we will come out. I can't help with that, but I can create a stable wormhole to use. Megatal isn't so much of an obstacle for me."

"You have a very interesting set of priorities."

"I'm trying to get Amy back." Nicole replied, indignant. "It doesn't look like you're trying. Tails, you were accusing me of being too violent and uncaring. You need to get your loyalties sorted. Fiona's been in tears about it at points."

"She's scared of you, so she wouldn't tell you to your face; how much have you been listening in on?" he smiled grimly as he saw he had the upper hand. "Yes Nicole, I know how you do things. Hearing and seeing things isn't a very difficult task to perform when you are most of Knothole. You're no less underhand than I am. Now, what has she been saying?"

"I won't say." The lynx crossed her arms. "I still have some semblance of honour."

"Don't give me that joke again. Since when has honour ever managed to get me anywhere? I do what I can to keep us alive – honour plays no role anymore."

"Come now, Tails, you can't say you've never noticed it. Honour won us the war."

"It lost them the war." He thrust his hand out into the air. "Their commander did things by the book, did things honourably, and now there isn't enough of him left to bury. I'd rather not end up like him, rotting in some unmarked grave because I gave my enemies a fair chance. Kill first, die last."

"And lose those you care about for it? You're not you anymore Tails, sort it out."

This was new, very new. He was getting told off by a computer – a computer he had upgraded, fixed, for how many years? His rebuke was coming from someone who wasn't even really Mobian, and somehow it stung…why? He couldn't work it out – what was so painful about hearing it? Tails retreated into himself, thinking.

Something certainly was different, there was no doubt about that. He felt different, these last few weeks had affected him to be sure, but everyone was on edge…Retis had managed to win the war and get himself killed in the process, and the mixed feelings generated had made new arguments blossom unreasoningly within the Freedom Fighters. It was amazing how much could change in such a short span of time.

So what was so new? Over time everyone would settle down again, adjusting to this change in the team. Of course, there was the problem of Fiona. If there was something wrong with her it put more of a workload on the rest of the team, and she would be acting in decreased capacity…more to do. He needed to sort that out or there would be no doubt that more would find themselves in similar situations, the feeling and problems associated would be compounded…  
"Buddy? You there?" asked Sonic through the comm-link, breaking off his chain of thought abruptly.

"Results?" Tails stood, beginning to pace.

"Unless someone has managed to set my head on fire without me noticing. I'm pretty much on the right spot. No sign of anything though."

"There wouldn't be." Tails was already moving, marching from the living room and through the corridors, no pause to admire the surroundings or even appreciate the silence. He took the stairs to the lab, trading panelled wood and crimson carpets for white polished steel walls and sliding doors. "Get on the line to the others, will you? I'm going to see what I can gather from here, then I'll meet you at the site. When do we want to do this?"

"Soon as."

"Right. Make sure they pack food. I'm not sure how long we'll be away, but it won't be for too long. We can't stay in another dimension for a great deal of time."

"If we do?"

"Our bodies come apart. It's like decomposition while you're still alive. Extremely painful."

"All the more reason to get Amy back."

"I expect our friends on the other side will have given her something to resist the effects. She's no use to them dead. Don't worry Sonic, she'll be alive when we get her back. What I'm concerned about is the state of her mind. Miles could have done any manner of things, and not all of them are reversible."

"What, so she might be sitting there, brain-dead?" Sonic's voice sounded panicky. He was worried for his friend, something Tails couldn't feel considering what Amy had been trying to do. When he replied, it was with the same intellectual and matter-of-fact tone he was trying to maintain.

"Quite possibly. If she is, then I might be able to restore her. It will depend both on the level of damage and time since he performed the procedure. I won't say I can, but I'm not saying it's impossible either. Now, do what I asked, I need to work something out here." He closed the link, dropping into the seat in front of banks of computer terminals and activating the holographic screen and keyboard. He typed in his password, granting access to complete functions as Nicole joined him in the form of a screen avatar.

"We're taking a look at the augurs?" she asked.

"Not exactly. I want to do the math for opening the portal." He shunted her aside with the mouse, clicking open a few programs, a three-dimensional map of the localised area of Mobius, along with an advanced calculation engine for defining the exact points of metaphysics. He began to type, loading in information.

Inter-dimensional travel is a very difficult science. An unguided portal could put you out anywhere, and there was a lot needed to make it a guided one. First you needed to line up the heights between one dimension and the other. Tails began to draw lines, models of dimensions and physical boundaries, Nicole making refinements and corrections wherever necessary.

The whole process would be haphazard and slapdash at best – you weren't meant to be able to travel through dimensions. No-one was meant to, but reality and nature aren't perfect processes and so it was possible…just. He would be using chaos energy, once again a form of energy from only one universe, and that was half the reason that the other end of the portal couldn't be tracked. You would need both people using the method from both sides to create a stable and completely directed wormhole through the dimensional wall.

Well, they would have to use what they had available.

* * *

Two hours, and everyone was assembled, and they had come prepared for a fight.

Lupin had fitted his standard sprint-blades, fitting ring-powered electrical charges that could be activated through pressure on his palms. Clipped over his chest in a thin harness was a chaos control jump generator, another of Tails' unique creations. It gave him a one-time-only teleportation of up to a mile, and produced almost no sound – the perfect tool for stealth.

Telera was wearing her combat bodyglove, and though she wore no visible weapons, the whole suit was fitted with a series of flares, shock-charges and stun-weapons. She took no blade or other weapon, she trusted in her body, her skill, and a little luck to see her through.

Fiona, teary-eyed, had shown up kitted out far more thoroughly than anyone else. On her back were the disassemble parts of the judgement rifle. A Love II handgun was slung on her belt, next to the explosive throwing knives. In each boot was a further knife, and a final one fitting into an elbow sheath. All that, and then the mirror suit. She looked ready to take on the entire Moebian population.

Sally had appeared along with Tails, and she was far more spartanly dressed than the rest. Her weapons, a pair of energy-blades fitted to the inside of the forearm, and a retractable bo-staff. Like Telera, she trusted to her own body and skill to see her through.  
Sonic and Tails had their emeralds, but only one would be going with the party.  
A troop of Onslaught robots had carted the equipment necessary out to the site, and they set up the various amounts of technology as Tails briefed the group on what would be happening.

"I'm going to be opening a chaos rift to Moebius." He started, bluntly. "And believe me, going through is going to hurt. We're going in, getting Amy, and getting back out, that's it. To that end, once the rift is open, I will be leaving one of the chaos emeralds here with Nicole, while Sonic holds on to the other emerald. Without it, we won't be able to determine where we come back. It will mean I'm only on a limited power supply, but I don't want to reappear on Mobius over the north ocean, or encased in solid rock. Once through, we're on a time limit. There's only so long our bodies can go before they start to succumb to dimensional mist, where they will begin to come apart. I don't yet have a way to counter it, and I don't want us to just die off slowly once we get there. The process will be painful, and no-one wants to go through it." He looked around, catching the nods and confirmations as the team of robots finished setting up the equipment.

"Sonic, let's do this." The two chaos adepts moved to the middle of the small clearing, and raised their emeralds into the air. In unison, they shouted, "Chaos, control!" and the air split. It appeared as a gaping rent, a wound in reality, stuff of dimensions spilling out into the world, before the systems set up kicked in, and the portal began to solidify. Nicole was exerting a massive amount of power through the emeralds and into the portal, shaping it into a circle, halting the flow of raw reality into the world, until in front of them hovered a sphere of swirling colours.

"You sure this will get us to Moebius, bud?"

"I'm not sure of anything where this is concerned. I've got a pretty good guess that it will. I'm just worried about where on Moebius. Come on, all of you, let's get this done."


	6. Renewed Assault ii

Moebius is quite a tranquil place, contrary to popular belief. As planetary ruler, Miles has very little need of heavy industry. His castle provides all that he needs, and rarely has he the need to maintain a standing army – he has Anima, and Scourge if really necessary. Thus most of the Moebian planet is, in reality, a very nice place to live. Vast swathes of the landmass are taken up by lush forests and jungles, humid rainforests becoming ever more common the closer you get to the equator.

The settlements are small, no greater in size than a large town, one of the few rules Miles implemented to secure his rule. He is, in the end, quite a benevolent ruler. Because the vast majority of public services, such as roads health care are taken care of by Anima and a robotic staff, many Moebians who have free time spend it hiking, or camping in the forests, oft finding serenity in solitude.

So it was quite a rare moment when a terrifying howl ripped through the trees, unearthly and unheard of in the Moebian lifetime. The source of the wail a tear in reality, howling and creaking in protest as the walls of reality were forced violently apart within the forests. The edges of the rent glowed ominously, in reality a simple reaction of airs from two dimensions as the travellers exited from the portal, clutching their sides in pain.

Tails was first to recover, flicking out a ring to heal the damage done, before making his way to the others and performing similar procedures with them. Sonic barely felt the pain generated by inter-dimensional travel, his chaos emerald protecting him from the worst of the damage. As his friend helped the other members of the team recover from the ordeal, whispering encouragement and using ring-energy to inure them to the damage in some way, Sonic surveyed his surroundings.

The trees expanded in every direction, pillars of darkened bark stretching back like panes of overlaid glass, light dimming with each new line of trees…the forest disappeared into darkness either side. Moebius was a paradise for its inhabitants, but to Sonic it just looked evil. It was unfamiliar territory, and his resolve wavered briefly.

"Lotta trees. Reckon we could ask one for directions?" he remarked, trying to make light of the situation, receiving pained stares in return.

"Eighty percent of the planet is landmass, and seventy-three percent of that is forest." Tails watched him wearily. "When we leave here, I can guarantee we will be sick of trees." A rush of air and a second inhuman howl announced the closing of the portal, but its presence still lingered in the air. He began to address the group as a whole. "The pain we're all experiencing will fade, but we're on a time limit here. I'd say we have about a week, two tops, before this world begins to get to us, so we have to proceed fast."

Sonic shook his head proudly. "We've got the speed."

"Yes, but a hedgehog running that fast is going to attract attention. We're going to have to change you a little first, Sonic. You've got your emerald – that's all the tools we need."

"What've you got in mind?" Sonic asked his friend.

"We all have, or had, an identical copy on this world. Sonic, yours is called Scourge, if he's still alive, and he's a bastard, for want of a more eloquent word. Guy is a complete dick, but other than that you and he are very alike. He' just as fast, he's the same height, and we're going to use that. But first you'll have turn green."

"Okay…" Sonic nodded at his friend's strange request. "Why?"

"Remember when you got that message from me, when I had to go away to Angel Island? Scourge had managed to get onto Mobius somehow, and had decided to try and take Knuckles' chaos emerald. I know he has the Master Emerald, but I gave him the grey emerald to guard. Anyway, Scourge tried to use chaos control, and it backfired. Turned his skin totally green. He finished that fight with a couple of new scars, but I won't give you those. Anyway, if you colour yourself green and act like a total sod to everyone, we should be able to pass you off as him. It'll let us move around quicker."

"Well, unless you brought a make-up kit in your fluff, I don't think that's gonna be possible."

"Use the emerald. Done the right way, it should be able to shift your colour. Change the pigments in your skin. We just need to add yellow. I can't do it for you, so you're going to have to do it. Changing it back is a different matter, but that is something I can do, when we get back to Mobius. Other than that, the rest of us should be able to come and go as we please."

And how are we meant to tell the difference between him and this Scourge character?" queried Fiona.

"If he's Sonic, I won't be able to kill him." Lupin growled, grinning like the wolf he was.

"If he's Sonic, I'll be able to sense his chaos signature." Tails corrected. "Anyone who isn't us lot will positively radiate anarchy energy. I'll be able to tell us from our copies without fail. If I can't, Sonic can." He began to pace, enjoying the feel of the grass on his ankles. "We need to find someplace to stay."

"Want me to sprint into town, once we've got me greened up?"

"No, you'll get lost exceedingly quickly, I assure you. I'll go." Tails objected. "I can check from the skies, and I know more about this place than you do. Lupin, you'll come with me. I want someone who can track our scent for the way back."

"Got it." The wolf nodded his assent.

"The rest of you will wait here until we return. Stay out of sight. If anyone sees us…" he paused, considering what he was about to say. "I can't give the order, but if anyone sees you, make sure they stay silent. I don't really care how, just make sure no-one goes yapping about us."

He received a chorus of nods, and a look of grateful relief from Fiona.

"It probably doesn't need to be said, but if one of our copies shows up, especially mine or Scourge, kill them. They're people that we really don't want to have roaming around, and if you don't kill them they will kill you." Tails turned with a wave, walking off into the darkening forest alongside Lupin. After ten minutes of walking, the wolf decided to start conversation.

"Why did you really ask me to come, mm?" his voice lacked his usual growl. "Your nose is almost as good as mine."

"I wanted someone with a killer's instinct." Tails replied.

"And the others didn't cut it, huh?"

"Not exactly. They don't have as much of a hunger as you do. I can rely on you to do what needs to be done, without hesitation. When we enter, I expect there will be a few people who don't like my counterpart. I know how to talk, how to act. I just want you to look dangerous and keep an eye on everything."

"I can do that." Lupin flexed his claws.

"Good. Hold here, I'm going to take a look from above." Tails launched himself into the air, namesakes powering him through the dense foliage above, filling his nose with earthy, natural smells, yet underlying there was a sour taste that marked it out as the wrong world. Abruptly the world burst into light, blinding him momentarily as he broke the tree cover. He blinked rapidly, pupils dilating to filter out the excess sunlight. As the light dimmed and his vision restored, he took his first look at the forests from the treetops.

Fucking hell, there were a lot of trees.

When the results had come back from the unmanned drone, he had been surprised at the massive amount of forested land, but this…to see it with his own eyes…it was breath-taking, a sight to behold. One of the few finer memories he would take back to Mobius with him. Turning his mind back to more practical matters, he began to sweep the landscape for a city, or a town, or something. He found it, a small but advanced-looking settlement, a few miles from their position. He descended back through the trees, the light traded for shadow once again.

"Found it?" Lupin asked.

"Yea. Small, but it's enough to start."

"Right then, Miles. Let's do this." The wolf smiled, and Tails glanced at him at the unconscious use of his first name.

"Keep calling me that. I want to stay in character." The fox requested.

* * *

The town was much like any other – it began with the outer edges, fairly pleasant houses with gardens and progressed steadily towards the centre, commercial buildings and industry springing up increasingly often. The people were happy enough – Miles sorted out their life to begin with, then they just took over. They had trade on various scales, business of all sizes and generally the place was content.

When the first few Moebians saw the pair of Mobians walking into the outskirts, the news of their approach spread like wildfire, and the entire city dramatically quietened. Lupin saw his friend change too, his expression changed to one of muted anger, his tails bristling and starting to swish ominously around him. He singled out a passing Moebian with a thrust of his finger, and strode towards him. The man dropped instantly to his knees, crossing one hand over his pectoral with three fingers extended in what apparently was a salute. Tails stopped a few feet from him.

"A map-maker, now. That or a library. You have five seconds." He glared down at the man, his gaze one of scrutiny.

The man reacted instantly, fumbling in his haste to follow the order, pulling out a little pocket-map of the town, marking a location on it in a little black marker before backing away as Tails took it from him. He glanced at it briefly, nodded his thanks to the Moebian, and moved on.

"So that's how we play it, then?" Lupin snarled over his shoulder.

"Yes. My counterpart owns the planet." Tails didn't look up as he spoke. "I think it will be wiser if you avoid talking too often, just act violent."

"Easy enough."

They found the library quickly – the colonnade and marble steps were a giveaway.

Tails pushed the door open silently, walking in with the silent courage that is gifted to those born to use it. He angled towards the attendant at the desk, pitching his voice across the room.

"Don't bother with the bow – I'm not waiting. A map of the planet. Now." Once again, the attendant, a female this time – a snowy leopard – hurried to obey his command instantly. It didn't matter why; if Miles requested it, you got it. You didn't question.

It took a minute or so, but she hurried back from one of the shelves the moment she located a copy, thrusting it out towards Tails as if it had stung her. The fox took it, nodding silently and turning to walk away. The librarian's hands flinched slightly, an instinctive reaction to having a book taken from the place without permission. Tails paused, arching an eyebrow, and Lupin stepped round him, his blade coming to her throat in an instant. He held it just off the jugular, his face close to hers.

"We're taking it. I hope that isn't a problem." His voice was a rumble, barely audible but no less threatening than a bellow. The leopard nodded almost imperceptibly, a difficult task with a blade near your throat. "Good." He grinned manically, his fangs reflecting the light. His blade lowered, his nose twitching. Lupin smelt the fear begin to pass, her breathing began to slow, then hit her. Not particularly hard, but enough to make her cry out and hit the ground. "Next time your lifeblood will pour out onto these stones." The wolf tapped his feet on the floor to emphasize the point, before wheeling with a dramatic flair to his cloak and stalking from the room.

Walking down the steps outside, Tails gave him his due.

"Nice work." He told him in a low whisper.

"Thanks. Did we get what we came for?"

"Yes. I know where to go. Go back and get the others – then come back and follow my trail. I'm going to find somewhere for us to sleep tonight. Make sure Sonic arrives first, keep him away from Sally. It's important. Oh, and make sure they call Sally by the name of Alicia while they're in earshot of anyone.

Stick close to our princess – threaten anyone who comes too close."

"Part of the act?"

"Part of the act." Tails felt Lupin move, disappearing from his side. He looked at the map the first man had given him, checking it over for hotels, and comparing his location with them until he found one only a few streets away. Folding it up and stowing it under his arm, he set off. As he walked, he became conscious of the silence around him – people stopped talking when he approached. He didn't like it – this wasn't him. It didn't feel right…this solitude. Once again he had that melancholy feeling that something was missing from his life.

The hotel he found looked to be well-styled, a wooden panelled veranda with dining seats out front, the patrons all businessmen of some sort or another. Most wore respectable suits, and all of them noticed and fell silent at his approach. Tails looked towards the rooms – each one had a small balcony with a rail of polished wood and glass, and the steps up to it were marble with a carmine carpet laid over them. The fox didn't spare the Moebians a second look as he stepped inside, the revolving door turning slowly behind him as he stood in the atrium. One of the secretaries rushed over to him, bowing as low as he could as frequently as possible. The Moebian wore an immaculate white cotton suit with ebony cuffs, and a carmine rose just below his shoulder.

"Two rooms on the ground floor." Tails stated, his gaze absently exploring the place, though he saw the owner shaking visibly as his hotel was inspected by the one he thought he was ruled by. "I have six people arriving, Scourge is with them. I'd remove anything too breakable, or get insurance on this place, if I were you." He advised slowly. "When they arrive, give them their keys and get someone to show them to the rooms I am using. We will be staying the night. How much does that come to?"

The man blinked at him before realising he was referring to the payment. After several seconds more, he found his voice. "I would not dream of asking you for payment, sir. May I show you to your room?"

Tails considered his offer. "Yes, then I will have a couple of questions. After that you can return to your duties. Now, let's go."

* * *

While the appearance of 'Miles' had sent waves of respect and fear through the town, the reaction to the other freedom fighters was one of abject terror. At their head marched a green hedgehog, Scourge. Everyone knew his reputation – he broke things purely because they were there, and he was sadistic; the pain of others was one of his pleasures. He walked like someone who was not only prepared for violence, but was actively seeking it, and so everyone went out of their way to avoid him.

Lupin walked next to him, nose twitching as he tracked Tails' scent through the town, past the library, along avenues and pathways until they too reached the hotel. The veranda emptied rapidly as Scourge ascended the steps, the various businessmen or nobles too afraid of the damage he might cause to be within his sight. The moment they entered the hotel the attendant was there, dropping the room keys into Lupin's outstretched hand as the wolf gave him his instructions.

"We will not be disturbed. If we have even the slightest interruption, your head will decorate the front of this place." He pitched his voice to be that same, rumbling growl. "Now, our rooms."

The Moebian backed away to what he hoped was a suitable distance, and staying in a half-bow, led them away. He pushed through a door of white oak, down a hallway that would not have looked out of place in the Acorn palace. Portraits or elaborate paintings of all kinds adorned the walls, tapestries and murals stretching one end to the other, the carpet maroon and thick. The man left them at their door, and Tails let them in, only speaking when they were all inside and the door was closed.

"I take it that no-one encountered any problems?" was his first question. "Come on, sit down. We're going to be spending the night in this room and the next."

"Who's bunking with who?" Sonic scratched his scalp, "dunno if you've thought of that already, but there's only two beds to a room, and there's six of us man."

Tails glanced around before swearing vehemently under his breath. Apparently he hadn't thought of it. "Well, you and Sally can share a bed, since you are married after all. Of course, now we need a pair of volunteers." An awkward silence descended upon the group – no-one really wanted to admit who they would sleep with, let alone in front of the rest of the freedom fighters. Once again Sonic, the master of social awkwardness, came up with the solution.

"How about you and Fi, Tails?"

For the first time in his life, Tails blushed a deep shade of crimson, his muzzle briefly lost in the colour of the wall behind him. Fiona reacted similarly, but the others were too enraptured by this sudden embarrassment Sonic was putting his friend through to notice. But the hedgehog wasn't done.

"Come on, we all know the wedding bells!" he started to hum the tune, getting progressively louder to drown out the strangled noises Tails was beginning to make.

"Sonic! What the hell are you thinking?" he snapped finally, finding his voice.

"What? You're objecting?"

"It's- the thing is- oh fuck you." Another round of laughter at his floundering. "you know what, I'm not going to make that choice. I'm going to leave that to Fiona." The laughter died as Tails took control again, and he looked over to the fox-girl. "Sorry." He told her, "blame Sonic."

Fiona's eyes remained fixed on the floor. She was thinking, and the eyes of all of her friends burning down on her weren't helping. This was what she wanted…but not the way she had envisioned. The more she thought of it, the more her heart sped up, the harder it was to think of anything else…she had wanted this sort of thing to be private…if at all. She didn't even know how sure of her feelings she was yet.

"I…I guess." She stammered finally. She wanted to scream _'Yes!'_ but something didn't feel right about it. Maybe not just yet, maybe it just needed time.  
The room erupted in cheers, and pats on the back ran round the circle. A little premature, Tails thought. It wasn't as if they had agreed to anything of…_that_ nature.

* * *

It took a little longer, but they settled on Lupin sharing the other room with Sonic and Sally, with Telera sharing with Fiona and Tails. After that there were discussions of plans, the fox showing the group the map he had procured.

"I couldn't openly ask about the castle, they would have suspected something. While Moebians have never seen 'me' before, trying to find what is meant to be my own home would arouse some suspicions. Of course, Miles was kind enough to update all the maps on the planet when he gained overall superiority, so he has all of his known holdings on here. I doubt he's put all of the facilities he owns on the map, but he's got the ones that he wants his subjects to know about. His key location is obviously one of them."

The rest of the evening was spent in discussion, working out roles, how people should act and when, and what they would do.

"No."

"It's part of the act."

"I said no."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes, we do."

"I'm not doing it."

"Hopefully you won't have to. Just act like it around other people."

Tails could cope with all of this. He couldn't cope with the evening, when they were all retiring to their beds. Tails and Fiona slid into the double bed on either side, trying to avoid meeting each other's eyes. Telera was in the bathroom, with meant another ten or twenty minutes alone. After a few minutes it was Fiona who finally started the conversation.

"Why was it so hard for you to answer?" she asked finally, stepping into the realms of a topic Tails had hoped to avoid.

"I…I'm not great at this sort of thing, Fiona."

"It's not like I've had experience in it either, you know. I still agreed to this. Why did you find it so difficult?"

"Do I really have to answer this?"

"Yes." Fiona smiled in the darkness. "Or else I'll just keep jabbing your ribs until you do answer."

"You're a shrewd negotiator, I'll give you that." He replied, still looking up at the ceiling, until he felt a hand on his muzzle. Without resistance it pulled his head sideways until he was looking at the fox-girl only a foot from himself.

"Come on then, tell me." She whispered.

"Well…ugh…it didn't really matter what I said, I didn't want to have to deal with the response the others would have given either way."

"Why?" In truth Fiona could guess, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"Well, if I said no, I didn't want to insult you, but saying yes…it implies just a little too much a little too soon."

"Oh. I see." She didn't sound particularly disappointed, or surprised. "Thank you. Didn't want to have to say anything committal in public, huh?"

"Yea, pretty much." He was happy enough to settle for her explanations of everything.

"Well, don't worry about it. We're just sleeping for tonight." She rolled over to face away from him, and despite himself Tails' eyes lingered briefly over her form, the rise and fall under the sheets…

Padding through the room, Telera smiled silently, unseen.


	7. Scarlet Veil i

As per their luck, it was raining. Rainclouds had drifted in overnight, and by morning it was coming down in sheets of water. The pavements were empty, the Moebian population preferring to move by car or other means of transport, rather than brave the concrete with their own two feet. Another thing, Tails noticed, that was different about Moebius. The clouds were blacker, not through pollution or any artificial means, but it was a trait of the world. The clouds darkened the skies, made it seem as if it were already the evening once again.

Fiona and Tails studiously avoided meeting each other's eye after the previous night, still embarrassed in their own way by the turn of events. The vixen's thought still lingered on the fox-boy though, trying to recall everything about him. Similarly, Tails found himself unable to avoid his mind recalling that night, going over everything he remembered…_Why? Why should he be thinking this way? What was wrong with him?_

He busied himself working things through with the others.

"We're going to need transport." He told them.

_"Agreed."_ Telera added. She had not yet told anyone of what she had overheard.

"I could get us some easily, but I only want one vehicle, and we need one that can deal with rough terrain."

"A helicopter?" Sonic suggested.

"No." Lupin growled immediately. "No heights."

"Oh, wolf-man doesn't like flying?" the hedgehog joked.

"I'm a wolf. I don't like heights full-stop, Sonic. Mine's a racial trait, not hydrophobia."

"Hey! I can't swim!"

"And I can't fly. See my point?" the wolf had the advantage. "If things go pear-shaped, you can teleport out of there. So can Tails. That leaves us four with a little bit of a problem."

"He's got a point, Lupin." Argued Fiona, "a helicopter doesn't have to deal with all the trees."

"And give the real Miles such a concise way to take us out of the air? I doubt Miles has any military installations around here, so any chopper we actually get access to is going to be civilian, and easy pickings for even the most basic anti-air." Lupin smiled.

"How long do we have, buddy?" Sonic cut across the argument.

"About a week."

"Why don't we just walk, or run? If we don't we'll just spend all day arguing. Come on, we're never gonna get Amy back if we just sit here arguing!"

"Do we really even want her back?" Lupin again, his voice spiteful.

_"What?"_ Sonic was incredulous.

"How can you say that you really like having her around, hmm?" he hunched his cloak over himself, "she breaks things, she ruins plans. She's obsessed with _you._" One claw reached out to point at the hedgehog, "She's imbecilic, she's clumsy, she's a waste of space. I don't understand how you all manage to tolerate her. I can't."

"It's no reason to abandon her." Sonic argued. It was a tough position – for the most part, Lupin was right, but it went against his nature. "Just because she's got her own problems, doesn't mean we should just give up."

"And why not? I don't see what she's ever done to deserve to stay."

"She hasn't! Alright! There you go, but I'm not giving up just on your say-so."

"Ah, yes." Lupin absorbed the blow. "My say-so. Would you do so were Tails to take my standpoint, or your wife? Would you be saying the same if it were Sally instead of me saying this?"

Sonic stopped in his tracks.

"He would." Sally answered for him. "Because he knows who his friends are. It's not just about usefulness, Lupin. Don't pretend that it is. At least Amy is friendly. She doesn't cut herself from the rest of us for days on end."

Lupin smiled humourlessly in return. "It appears that we have different priorities, princess. Very well then; If I must be a part of this then I want to know how we are to go about it."

"We walk, then." Tails decided. "We'll have to move hard and fast, but we can make it if we move, and soon. Unfortunately…" he turned his gaze to the window, "it isn't going to be a pleasant way of travelling. I have rings to supply us with food and water, but nothing against the weather."  
"I think we can take a little rain, Tails." Fiona said with confidence.

"You sure?"

"Come on, it's water."

"Then it's settled, but we'll wait a bit for today. It can't get any worse, but we should see if it lightens up a little. Travelling is harder the harder the weather is."

"Good point."

* * *

"What are you?"

"A servant."

"Why are you alive?"

"To complete my purpose."

"And what is your purpose?"

"To preserve yours."

"How will you do this?"

By making it my own."

"Who are you?"

"The tool."

* * *

Travelling was, as predicted, slow, messy, and otherwise generally unpleasant. An hour or so later the rain had eased off a little to become a light shower, but the damage was done. The ground was soaked, fur absorbed water off grass and trunks dripped water instead of offering shelter. Wherever grass didn't grow the dirt had turned to claggy mud, clinging to the Mobians as they trudged through it. Often they paused to shake themselves free of mud and water, muttering curses almost every step of the way.

When they stopped to rest and eat, moods were lower than they had been in the morning. The group lowered themselves onto tree roots and low branches, slightly less wet than the ground itself. Fiona dropped down next to Tails, watching as he ripped off blades of grass with one hand, dropping them through the ring as it hovered in the air, various edible bits and pieces falling into his hand.

"Maybe not the best choice I made." The vixen admitted.

"We all make bad choices." Tails kept his voice indifferent.

"You got about the best we could for the weather, though."

"It might get better, I don't know."

"What're we going to do about lodgings?"

"There's a facility, or a village or something that we should reach by the time the sun is meant to go down, I can't tell – don't know how to read Moebian. As long as Miles isn't there when we show up, we won't encounter any difficulty."

"And we don't know if he is there?"

"I won't be able to tell unless I get eyes on him. I can tell the difference between two chaos adepts, maybe between two people from our dimension with a bit of a push, but all Anarchy adepts feel the same in my sense. I'm not meant to be able to detect Anarchy energy. The only reason I can is that according to our laws, they aren't meant to be here."

"What do you mean?"

"Chaos sense is designed for our universe, the Mobian universe. It sees anything that doesn't emit the standard chaos signature as an anomaly, thus everything that emits anarchy energy shows up as something that shouldn't be around. I can't tell anything more because I'm not meant to be able to."

"Then maybe I should check the place out, before we get too close?"

Tails glanced up at her, genuine worry on his face. "And let you get yourself that close to Miles alone?"

"If he's there. Besides, my rifle has about for different scopes on it. I'll be able to check the place out from a mile away, we just need to get that close. We need line of sight on him, but he doesn't need to see, or sense us."

"You know," he patted his knee knowingly, "times like that I could really kiss you Fiona. Sometimes I'm a complete idiot like that."

"Nothing stopping you." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them, and her cheeks turned a vivid shade of pink.

He looked at her and almost smiled. "Don't worry, I'll preserve both our dignities. I'm not giving anyone else any cannon fodder, however much there is based behind it."

Fiona looked away into the trees, smiling at the thought of it, touching his lips to hers, for however brief a time. She wanted it more than she could say. Would a little embarrassment be all that problematic?

* * *

"Well, whatever it is, it's military. See the mountain? They built it into the side of the thing. Big concrete place with a couple of doorways. If Miles is there, I can't see him. My infra-scope isn't showing anything that looks like him, but I can't be sure."

_"Good enough for me."_ Telera signed to anyone looking.

"Agreed." Lupin added his assent, "Living rough is nice sometimes, but this takes it a little far. Come on Miles, go do your acting." A few faces blinked at him at the use of Tails' name.

"He's staying in character." The fox defended. "Miles _is_ my first name, after all. Now, come on, let's do this before night shows up."

Fiona began to writhe in her spot, trying to pull herself out from the spot in which she had wedge herself under a thick, bristly hedge. She felt a hand on her shoulder, helping her out, pulling her to her feet – it let go before she knew who. As she disassembled the rifle, they others ran through their own weaponry checks, in the event that they did have to fight their way in, or out.

Tails set off, slicing tree branches out of the way with deft strokes of his namesakes, the tips hardened by chaos energy. He cut a path for the others to follow, leaving a neat trail of destruction.

The others trudged through the mud behind him, some worried for his 'acting' and some surprised at his proficiency in the field.

The guards were not lax.

Heavy automatic weaponry spun up, trained on the fox as he broke cover from the trees, walking out towards the facility as if he had every right to be here. His eyes took in the cemented wall jutting out from the mountain base, and his voice rang out to the guards.

"Weapons down, or do I hire someone who can see for a change?" his voice, his tone, was unmistakable. Immediately, fearing retribution, the barrels were turned aside and set to cool, guards dusting off their uniforms, scrubbing dirty patches on boots or weapons in an attempt to look presentable before their master arrived.

He did, very quickly, and some were still frantically checking themselves over when he ascended the elevator, his team in tow.

"Did you not receive the message?" he asked, quite calmly, to the guard there to greet him.

"Message, sir?" the Moebian's voice was nothing but fear.

"I sent word ahead that I was going to be making a trip to this facility, and I arrive to find weapons trained on me. This doesn't speak well for communications, does it?"

The man began to reply.

Tails didn't let him – his hand latched out, catching the guard round the throat and lifting him into the air. He pulled him in close, and when he spoke, it was barely even a whisper. "Even consider firing on me again and I will have you killed in most painful way possible. Your life hangs by a thread, you only still live because I don't have a convenient replacement. Do you understand?"

The man nodded, slowly, choking for air. Tails released him and he crumpled to the deck. For a moment, the fox's eyes lingered on his hand. _Had he really just done that?_ But gave away no emotion, no possibility that he might have regretted it. Then he was moving again, the guards stepping aside as fast as they could to allow him inside.

_"You know why I don't kill them?_

_"No, not really."_

_"Because I'm not them; I don't want to sink to that level."_

_"They won't rise to yours."_

_"That's no reason."_

Was that the real danger here? Was he in so much danger of becoming Miles, this violent, unpredictable doppelganger he worked against now?  
He snapped his fingers, and the nearest soldier, guarding a door, ran over to him.

"We're not staying long. We're waiting the night and heading out in the morning. Supplies will be needed. Make sure they are ready."

"Yes sir." He hurried away without further comment.

Now they were alone, Tails gave further instructions.

"Spread out, see what this place is for. Lupin, Telera, you two together, Sally, you and Fiona come with me."

"Why me?" Sally was rightly confused. Shouldn't she go with Sonic?

"In this place, Miles is married to Alicia Acorn, or specifically, you, just using your middle name. I'm not asking for anything untoward, just that as long as we're seen together they won't suspect anything. Sonic, you just charge around the place. Scourge doesn't really care much for this sort of stuff, so try to avoid like you're actually inspecting the place."

"Got it." The hedgehog nodded, disappearing down the corridor in a rush of air and heat.

"Eager, isn't he?" Lupin taunted.

"He's trying to save someone. He's always like this."

"Always impetuous? Always ready to get himself killed?"

"What's wrong with you Lupin? Sonic doesn't get himself killed." Sally stabbed back. "You've got your job. Go do it."

Lupin stalked off into the facility without another word, not waiting for Telera as she sprinted after him. She caught up halfway down the hall and began to sign, but the wolf was not watching – it would do no good.

He opened the first door he came to, peering inside to the clean white surfaces of a laboratory. A few of the Moebian scientists working there glanced up, but none spoke. The guards had already made it aware that he had arrived with Miles.

He walked amongst them unmolested, the tigress holding a few steps behind.

Test tubes of green liquid.

Monitoring equipment.

Lupin stopped by one at random, tracing his fingers over it. He could smell the fear in the Moebians around him. Fear of the wolf himself, fear that he might damage their equipment, it was in their sweat, it hung in their air, a humidity painfully obvious to him but almost indistinct to everyone else…pathetic.

His claw scraped along the worktop, tracing a thin line, peeling the enamel from the surface. The screeching cut off anything one of the scientists may have said, until he spoke to one of them.

"What are you doing?" a simple enough question, and the Moebian he asked was relieved enough that he answered it.

"Alchemical changes affecting the Moebian body, strength or intelligence enhancement…that sort of thing. You-" he stopped himself.

"I what?" Lupin's manner was threatening, yet faintly amused. "I wouldn't understand it? Probably right. Maybe we could arrange to have one of those intelligence injections?" he laughed, rough and humourless.

"Would you?" the man's curiosity had been sparked. He may be inches from death, but as most scientists he was more curious than cautious.

"I think I might. Not today. I'll return if I decide that it is worth my time." He wheeled and left the room.

A hand took hold of his forearm and he moved to shake it off, but it was Telera. He let it slide…for now. His head titled down slightly to see her, see into her eyes. She didn't speak, she didn't sign, but she was worried. Worried for him. _Why the hell should she be worried? He could take care of himself._

* * *

"This is more than your average research installation. Look – they have sensors here calibrated to register brain functions beyond the normal range…whatever they're looking for, it isn't the natural electrical signals a normal brain outputs."

"Tails, look at this." Their wandering had taken them into the lower levels of the facility, where the scientists and the guards seemed not to work. The place was deserted, and none of the three Mobians' sensitive ears had detected any sound that would imply movement.

Fiona walked with the Love Handgun out, tip down and using it to push open each door, covering each angle as she did so, as she had been trained. As Tails joined her at the latest door, she gestured with the gun to a leather operating table, electronic bands to hold the subject down.

"What were they doing?" Tails wondered aloud, stepping into the room, pupils widening to take in what little light there was. "They were experimenting on someone…that seat is prepared for an occupant of Mobian, or Moebian, shape and size. Looks like they were fond of testing sentient subjects. I want to know what that is."

Fiona followed his pointing finger to a contraption jutting from the ceiling. It looked as if a stalactite had been built there, wicked metal bolted and welded to the ceiling. Telescopic, it was half-extended towards the operating table, scores of operating instruments packed into the tip. Saws, knives, needles, injection tubes…

The vixen picked up one of the pieces of paper on an illuminated desk, turning it over and trying in vain to read whatever the owner had noted down. "I'm about as clueless with the writing as you are, but they've made diagrams of the brain. Take a look."

Tails looked away from the massive operating apparatus and took the leaflet from Fiona.

She was right, it showed a perfect schematic of the brain and stem, but there was something else.

Lines, like veins, fanning out over the brain tissue from various areas. It was definitely a brain…

"This isn't right." Tails showed the paper again to Fiona, pointing out bits and pieces of the pseudo-veins with his claws. "These aren't meant to be here. The brain doesn't have this sort of network, inside or out – I've seen dissections and partaken in one at one point. If a brain looked like this it would be the strangest tumour I've ever seen…"

"Should we take them with us?"

"Might be a plan. Do you have space in that suit?"

"I've got room."

He nodded. "Then get as much of this stuff as you can. If I can interpret the language back home, it might give us an advantage."

Fiona began to fold the sheets of notes and fold them into a compartment on her belt, inspecting each piece and either discarding it or stowing it depending on how useful it looked. Most of it went to the belt as the other two explored the room further.

The rest of the room proved to be like any other operating theatre, with portable gurneys with glinting tools laid out in orders on top, oxygen tanks and blood packs stored in cupboards on the lower half of each one.

A wide cupboard in the corner held four shelves of bottles, each with a different chemical or medical fluid in, once again infuriatingly labelled in the Moebian language. Tails spent minutes inspecting them, but once again he found himself drawn back to the giant piece of apparatus that hung ominously from the ceiling.

"You have to give it to the guy, he knows how to make things." Sally remarked, from next to him.

"Yes, but for what?"

"Well, it's for operating on people, what else?"

"Yes, I know that." Tails snapped with just a little impatience. "But Miles takes people apart, he doesn't put them back together. His men will have been running experiments in this place, or maybe even him personally, but I want to know why. Hopefully deciphering those papers I asked Fiona to get will yield some results."

They left the macabre room and its bizarre machinery behind, walking in silence down the darkened corridors to the next room. Tails pushed the door open and strode in, and stopped dead.

Limbs. Racks and racks of limbs, of all shapes and sizes.

Each one, preserved perfectly in aluminium tubes of green fluid, but once again that was not the only thing about them.

Almost all had been modified, chunks of flesh cut out and replaced by blinking, silvered bionics. Fine copper wire meshed together to make nerves, pistons for muscles…

So this was what he was doing.


	8. Scarlet Veil ii

To their immense relief, the rain had eased off overnight. Though the ground was wet and the trees dripped with moisture yet to shed, it would not be pouring down on them from all sides. The clouds had not parted however – a black mass still hung over the forest, blotting out the sun and turning the day into a grim, depressing twilight. Spirits were still low, and the group were not enjoying their trek through the forests.

On top of that, the first signs of anarchy poisoning were beginning to manifest in the most vulnerable of members – the chaos adepts.

They had the highest concentrations of chaos energy about them, and anarchy energy fought even more violently to dispel them from the world.

Tails saw it first, a slight discolouration in his eyes and the barest roughening of his fur. He was checking the extent of the damage in a mirror when Fiona entered the room. She wasn't wearing much, just a towel.

"It's happening already, isn't it?" she sounded scared.

"For me, yes." Tails replied, turning. "And for Sonic. We're chaos adepts. Chaos energy is a part of us. Anarchy tries to destroy it, and us in the process. For the rest of you, being from our dimension makes you similar targets, but you are not channelling chaos energy in the same way we are. For you…the process will take a couple of months for decay to occur completely, a couple of weeks, a month at most before you are incapacitated."

"And for you and Sonic?"

Tails gulped. "For the two of us…I'd estimate three to four days."

The vixen could help by gasp. "But…"

"I will be able to slow the process with the ring supply I have, though I'm not sure by how much. We're going to have to do this fast." He shrugged off her concern, and a thought struck him as he passed her. He paused, placing a hand on her shoulder, and whispered into her ear. "I'll be fine. Just keep yourself alive." Then he left the room, to gather the supplies the guards were preparing.

"You're not dying just because I wasn't looking, fox-boy." Fiona told the room, then wheeled to follow him.

* * *

"They've made their way to one of the facilities."

"What do they know?"

"I cannot confirm. Facility is not within my reach."

"Oh well, can't hold all the cards."

"Recommended course of action?"

Miles frowned. "Send…send Nikirox."

"Power-up time of four hours required."

"Then begin. As for the Felicia project, begin memory upload."

"Confirmed."

* * *

They set off an hour later, a feeling of oppression crushing the group at the news. Tails walked through it, implacable despite the predicament. Sonic, sure of his speed to see him through, likely didn't bother thinking about the danger he was in. Fiona, Telera and Sally worried for the two adepts, each to their own measure, each silently and subconsciously.

Lupin, knowing that he had plenty of time before the sickness set in, cast aside the worry and pushed onwards, his face a mask of determination. He didn't like this world, but at least it gave him more freedom…back home, people knew him. He couldn't outrun them all forever, and he couldn't kill them all if they got in his way.

Here…here, the population knew nothing about him. They knew nothing of what he could do, and he had to admit…he kinda liked it. This was where he was best – anonymous, a shadow.

The progress was quicker this time, the ground slowly beginning to firm up again without the constant barrage from above keeping it wet and cloying. Soon after they began walking they found they were walking on wet grass and thick mud, which avoided the sticking if you crossed it fast enough.

The world felt cold.

However, when it came time for them to stop for their halfway meal, things were better than they had been the previous day – talk came more freely, yet the mood was darker, with the premonition of what was to come and the encroaching anarchy disease.

"I'm going to look around." Lupin growled, loping off into the forest before anyone could stop him.

"He's going to get himself killed." Sally remarked, dropping down onto a log and brushing a few strands of bright red hair out of her eyes.

Fiona, resting against one of the rough, solid, Moebian trees, overheard the comment. "He's a wolf," she told the squirrel girl, "He isn't comfortable unless he's got a good chance of dying."

"He could think about us for a change."

"That isn't gonna happen anytime soon."

"I know…but I don't want to lose another teammate so suddenly after the last."

_"There's no use trying to convince him."_ Telera dropped down next to Sally, shaking her head in dismay, _"Lupin is uncontrollable. He won't listen to commands – he more or less does whatever he wants, unless the orders involve having someone end up dead. Then he seems more than happy to go along with it."_

Sonic and Tails sat away from the other three, the former contemplating how he could speed things up, the latter wondering how much time he could extend it by. Not long, he was sure – anything produced by chaos energy, and that included rings, worked at reduced capacity in this dimension, some of the power sucked away to stave off the dilapidating effects of anarchy energy on the rings themselves.

He pondered this problem, eating his food without really tasting it as he looked around at the other members of the team, examining their auras. As expected, both his and Sonic's were already in flux as anarchy asserted control. But the others…the others were positively radiant. They weren't adepts, they had no power over chaos of their own…yet he could sense their own auras, he could pick out which belonged to who in this alien setting, his own senses amplified by the wrongness of the place.

"So, bud, reckon we can do it?" Sonic nudged him in the side, his tone confident and serious at the same time – rare in Sonic.

"It'll be tight," Tails admitted with a shrug, "We'll get there tomorrow, I expect. I'm just concerned we won't be able to get back before the two of us run out of steam."

"If we don't?"

"Then it's over, for us two definitely. And then, without an adept to use the emerald, either one of them will have to sacrifice themselves to trigger a successful teleportation, or stay here. If we go down, a maximum of half of us can get back home."

"Then we'd better not slow down. Should we get going?" Sonic's need for movement was reasserting itself. That was good. The more he held onto himself, both mentally and physically, the harder it was for anarchy to take over.

Lupin appeared through the trees, running on all fours to lend him all the speed he could. He stopped to stand in front of the group, barely winded by the run, "we've got company." He told them, as the trees behind him were ripped from their roots.

Tails pushed himself from the root cluster he was sitting on and leapt forward to meet it, sending twenty rings to power his next manoeuvre. He reached out, catching the tree along its length, the force of the throw driving him backwards through the mud and undergrowth, but he held firm, rings bolstering his strength to unnatural levels.

The momentum dissipated and he dropped the tree to the ground, panting. Not good. He couldn't keep up a drain like that.

Then the tree exploded, and he was thrown away like a ragdoll, cracking heavily off another giant piece of forestry.

Striding through the rain of wood pulp, sawdust and splinters…was a robot.

The artificial target was just over five feet in height, with black colours covering every surface. The head was a single optic running from one side of its head to the other, ridging which was a crest of quills, flattened backwards to jut out from the rear of the armoured skull. On the chest was a single bright crimson eye, snapping between each member of the party in turn.

A single-barrelled weapon stuck out the top of a thick gauntlet, presumably the weapon used to detonate the foliage, and even as they watched it disappeared back inside, polished blades sliding into niches on the bottom of each gauntleted hand.

**"I am Nikirox."** The robot informed them in a monotone, **"You are trespassing on land that is not your own. Orders: Execution."** and he exploded forward into motion, blades scything out to decapitate Sally, the closest of the group. He was met, mid-air by Sonic, curled into a ball with spines hard as diamond. Sparks flew before they broke apart.

**"Primary target confirmed: Sonic. Hedgehog. Anarchy Drive: Online."**

Runner lights lit up along Nikirox's arms and feet, glowing an eerie purple. He drifted sideways, blocking repeated attempts at a spindash by the green hedgehog,

Sonic backed off then darted in again, and again, bouncing off any surface he could think of to come at the robot from yet another angle. Nikirox blocked and parried for all he was able, his systems empowered by his anarchy emerald.

However, he was just a robot, a powerful robot, but nonetheless he had been created and not born into being an adept as Sonic was. Both combatants were undoubtedly fast, too fast for the normal eye to follow – indeed, the other Mobians had been unable to track their friend as he traded blows with this new adversary. Nikirox was fast, but not as fast as Sonic.

The green hedgehog slammed again and again into his robotic foe, allowing his rage towards him channel itself into power, some to be blocked by the flashing blades, but not all.

Nikirox began to receive warnings, information flashing up on his display, warning him of breaches in his armour, stress fractures from repeated impact and more substantial cracks where the hedgehog had hit home hard.

The robot changed tact, diving sideways and allowing Sonic to overshoot, the blades sliding back into their holding areas to be replaced by gun barrels, sliding out of niches within the gauntlets, fixing into place so that both of his hands were ringed with them as Sonic ricocheted off a tree overhead, spinning to a stop in front of him.

The barrels spun on themselves for a moment, heating up, then both miniguns erupted with fire, spitting an almost constant stream of bullets after his primary target. Sonic jinked to avoid the initial volley and began to run again, between trees and up them to avoid the fire bearing down upon him. While Nikirox had a bead and was firing, he couldn't get close, and he was running out of trees.

Without warning the stream of tracer fire stopped, and Sonic saw it happen. He paused in his flight from the lead and dropped to the forest floor, the robot pitching face-first into the ground.

Sally stood over it, energy blade humming.

While Nikirox had been busy engaging his 'primary target' the others were pretty much left to do as they please. Fiona had almost immediately rushed to Tails' unconscious side to see the extent of his wounds, but Sally had acted to defend her husband. While the pair had been engaged up close she hadn't been able to move in safely, but the moment Nikirox had switched to range combat, he had no longer needed to move. The squirrel-girl had darted forward then, planting her hand against the back of his skull and triggering the energy blade fitted to her inner forearm. It had punched through the reinforced armour and into one of the primary processors, effectively robbing it of any commands whatsoever. In fact, it had managed to keep firing for three more seconds afterwards, then the fact it was destroyed sunk into the more outlying systems and the robot had finally died.

"Wow. Nice hit." Sonic remarked, jogging back to Sally and embracing her, "how'd you know where to hit it?"

"I…didn't." she replied with a smile, reciprocating the gesture, "I just hit it and hoped that I'd hit something worth hitting."

"Looks like it did the trick. Got to give it to Miles though, he knows how to build a robot. Damn thing tracked me for three miles through the forest." Lupin smirked, tapping his foot against the dead shell.

"All of you, back away from it." The three of them spun to see Tails, supported either side by Fiona and Telera, limping towards them. "That thing is radiating anarchy energy, which will be speeding up the reaction time. Sally, crack open its back with those blades of yours. I don't want to waste rings doing it myself."

The squirrel knelt, repeating the action she had performed, placing both hands on the back of Nikirox's torso, triggering the blades with a twitch of her arm. There was a hum as the blades activated then a screech as they punched through the hardened steel, warping the metal surface. She withdrew then, exposing the power source.

Tails dropped down next to it, lifting a fist-sized gem out of the cavity with almost priestly care. "This is an Anarchy Beryl." He explained, "there are seven, just like the chaos emeralds. None of us can use it, but I'm glad to say that I think Miles just made a mistake, practically handing this to us. Nikirox may have been a fair combatant, but Sonic was superior, quite easily. We can't use its power ourselves, but I'm sure I can find something that can." He lurched to his feet, stumbled and almost fell, once again Fiona catching him under the arm. "Thanks." He offered.

"Isn't it dangerous having it with us?" Sally asked, still peering warily at the glowing gem.

"Probably." Tails shrugged, "but it's a pawn to use. If I hold onto it I think I can keep its debilitating effects spreading to the rest of you."

"And you? You're not dying on me." Fiona laughed softly.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not going to be beaten by a big pebble. Just keep yourselves alive. And before you say anything, no, Sonic, you're not carrying it. The others will need you to get back if it turns out this thing works faster than I expected."

The hedgehog grimaced.

"I can read you like a book, Sonic." Tails hauled himself to his feet properly. "We don't have time to waste here. We have to move, now."

"You need to rest. You just got damn-near blown up." Fiona forced him back to sitting again. "Don't argue. Put the anarchy-thing somewhere else for a bit. Here." She snatched it out of his hand before he could protest, throwing it over her shoulder into some brush. "I'm sure you can find it later, but for now it won't do any more damage."

As the idea sunk in that they were going to be staying where they were for a bit, the group dispersed slowly, leaving Tails and Fiona together once again.

"You don't know what you're doing." She told him sternly.

"I'm trying to save your lives."

"No you're not. You don't trust anyone. You won't let anyone do anything except yourself." There she went. Berating him again. "When are you going to get it? You can't do everything alone."

"I'm not…" he buried his head in his hands. "I'm trying to make sure none of you get hurt…"

"Why? Really, Tails, sometimes you are really thick."

"What're you talking about?"

Fiona shifted position slightly, crossing her legs and adjusting herself so she was facing him. "We all signed up for this, not just you. We all knew, we all saw what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up to be Freedom Fighters. Come on, Tails, you're not the only one. This is a team. I hate to have to be the one to say this…" the vixen swallowed, "but deal with it. Lupin's already got the loner act down. We don't need someone else like him. We need a leader.

Tails coughed violently. "You volunteering?"

"Me? You have to be joking."

"Since when do I joke? Come on, you're better at giving out inspiring speeches than I am. And besides…" he paused to cough again, "You'll probably live longer than I will, at this rate. I'm going to be hospitalised for a while even if I do live to see another day."

"Quit complaining or I'll carry you the rest of the way. Attitude and all."

Tails blushed heavily, twisting away. "Don't patronise me."

Fiona stared at him in silence for a few moments, then, summoning her courage, took a leap of faith. She raised her hand to his muzzle, ruffling the edges of it, then quickly tugged so that his face was spun to hers, and before he could twist away again, quickly kissed him on the cheek. It lasted no more than a moment, and Tails took several seconds to realise what had just happened. The moment he did, the blush reddened. "I'm not patronising you." Fiona whispered, dangerously close to his face, "we all need help sometimes."

As politely as he could, Tails pushed Fiona back slightly. "I'm…I'm not…"

"Yes?"

"I don't know what's gotten into you, but I don't feel that way about you Fiona. You're a friend, yes, a close friend, yes, but not…not that. Not yet, anyway. I don't know."

_Stupid. What were you thinking?_ Fiona began the process of mentally chiding herself for being so forward. "Right. Yea. You're not good at that stuff yet." She replied, involuntarily sounding hurt.

"Fuck…" Tails muttered, then shuffled back to face her, taking her hands. "Fiona, listen. I don't know about all this crap, alright? I've never had a proper relationship in my life. I was only dating Amy to keep her off Sonic and Sally while they were having their internal issues. I don't even know what love is. It's not something you can quantify, or code, or number, or- I don't fucking know anything about it. I don't know how you feel about me, and I sure as fuck don't know how I feel about you. There might be something there, I might just be too narrow-minded to work it out. _I don't know._ Let me mull it over a bit, and we'll talk sometime, when one of us isn't slowly dying from radiation poisoning."

The fear that she had just lost all chance was broken, the hope returning. Okay, it wasn't a committal answer, but she was fine with that for now. He had said they would talk sometime, she would hold him to that promise. He wasn't going to die here, she was going to make dam sure of it. She nodded to thank him for the request. "I'll hold you to that." She told him with a grin.

"Another reason for me to get back alive, and thanks for understanding. I guess you were right."

"Right about what?"

"That I do have thick moments, and we all need a little help sometimes. Wait! I'm not going to ask you to carry me, but I might need some relationship advice sometime in the near future. Crap. I already sound like I've said yes, don't I?"

"Pretty much." The vixen agreed, "but don't worry, I won't tell the others."

"Good. My dignity is preserved." Tails sighed with mock-relief. "Should we get going? I'll be able to walk, and I think by now Miles will want his present back, don't you?"

Fiona stared over to where she had thrown the anarchy beryl. Even through the scrub she could see it glowing, and she made a choice.

"I'm carrying it." She said immediately.

"No!" Tails snapped, "I-"

"It will just drain you faster. Don't argue, Tails." Fiona planted her hand firmly over his mouth. "You said we had a couple of months, us normals? Yes?" she waited until he nodded before continuing, "Well, I don't plan on being here that long. I'll take it. We're going to be here for a few days more at most, so I'll carry it. You won't fall apart on us. It's not as if you're going to be using it, anyway." She pushed herself off the root cluster, walking quickly over to where the beryl lay, and retrieved it. On her way back she brushed the dirt and leaves off it, pushing it into a pouch along with the notes from the lab.

"You're not giving me any choice, are you?" Tails asked warily.

"You've got a promise to keep, Tails." Came the stern reply, "I'm not letting you die just because I wasn't looking, and I'm definitely not letting you die from some oversized glowing pebble with a manky attitude."

The fox made to push himself to his feet, the vulpine girl helping unasked. He grunted slightly and stumbled, the bruises starting to tell from where he had been hit by bits of tree, and looked to Fiona.

"You've got one hell of a nerve." He told her. "Back during the war, that was the only time anyone has ever said no to me without support. You don't like giving up. I like that."

She took it as a compliment, but remained silent, opting to smile thankfully at him.

The others had been oblivious to the exchange, all except Telera, who had kept half an ear on it the entire time. When they saw Tails struggle to his feet, they all rose with him.

"We're moving." He told them, "but I'm not going to be leading." He glanced over at Fiona. "I don't think I have the strength. Thus far I've been used as a tennis ball by two different trees, and coupled with the anarchy radiation, it hasn't been kind to me. Sally, Fiona, you two know map-reading and orienteering. One of you take point."

There was a brief discussion, and eventually Sally took the map, the others agreeing with Fiona about keeping the two adepts a safe distance from the anarchy beryl.

Tired, in pain and growing steadily more disgruntled with their environment, the six Mobians traipsed off into the forest, Sally at the fore and Fiona lagging a few steps behind.


	9. Scarlet Veil iii

Finally, as the restrains holding her to the table folded aside, the Moebian slid from the operating room, silently, obeying her master's orders. Silent hallways greeted her, though the floor was hard and cold she made no sound as she walked, padding through the structure, following a route embedded into her mind through several complicated neural procedures.

Her thoughts were her own, not like the lunatics or the brain-dead who had gone before her, she knew everything about her. But she had her orders, she had her loyalty, and it wasn't her way to go against promises. Defying this order felt wrong, anyway, and it was paying very well.

She found her weapon lying propped against a wall in yet another deserted hall, and she strapped it to her belt in silence – words would be wasted, talking to walls. Weeks had been spent in that operating theatre, months in the laboratory, no-one had ever spoken to her…eventually she had stopped trying to gain a response. It had been…almost two years? Two years since she had really spoken to anyone, then, a week ago, _he_ had made his appearance, and started talking to her. So kind, the lack of interaction had driven her to talk.

_"You will do as you are told, no more no less. There will be no improvisation, no free-thinking. My orders will be carried out, and then we will decide what to do with you."_

_"Of course."_

_"You will be given the best rooms and places to stay, but do not let it distract you. Failure in completing this task will result in your death."_

_"I won't fail."_

_"Make sure of it."_

* * *

"What's our route looking like?" Tails asked ahead to Sally, as she lead the team through the dense forest. The squirrel paused a moment later, squatting down in the grass to rest a moment.

At length she replied, "We should be at the palace, or fortress, or whatever it is, in a couple of hours, if my guess is correct." Her expression hardened. "Is there anything we should know before we arrive, Tails?"

The vulpine shrugged wearily. "Your guess is as good as mine. I can make a few educated guesses, but aside from that…"

"And they would be?"

"We can expect to encounter Scourge, so Sonic, you will need to be fast to beat him. He's a dick, but he's your opposite. He's just as fast as you. I'm also pretty sure Miles will have the resident AI on his side. I don't know what it's like, or what it can do, but I'm pretty sure Miles will have some computer on his side. Aside from that, I can't really tell you much."

"What about Miles himself?"

"He's me, but evil. That's pretty much the top and bottom of it…though…we might have to face some of his minions. He's a pretty big believer in the biomechanical side of things. He's not just a jerk, he's a smart one, and more dangerous than I am."

"So…pretty much like you've been for the past five years?" Sonic asked nonchalantly.

Tails buried his head in his hands. "Can we save the berating for after we've sorted this out? I want to walk away from that argument alive, whether or not I win. How about we settle for walking into the castle, killing those bastards, getting Amy back and getting out of this dimension alive, hmm?"  
"I'll settle for fifty percent." Lupin grinned.

"Lupin." Tails grimaced, "We've been through this. Stop reminding us."

"Just making sure everyone knows where I stand on the subject."

"Well you've made your point abundantly clear. Now unless you have something useful to say, do shut up."

He shut up.

"Sonic and I will be able to tell how many people are in the castle, but not who. Fiona, your sniper trick isn't going to work this time. If I'm right about the AI, if there are any constructs up and about, they will be giving off signatures as well, along with anything else giving off heat in the castle, and since Miles loves technology as much as I do, that is going to be a lot."

_"How about ideas for getting us inside?"_ Telera questioned silently.

"Walking in the front door." He replied without a trace of humour. "What?" he asked to their stunned faces, "both of the people in the castle are anarchy adepts. They will be able to sense us no matter whom it is or where we are. At least going in the front way will mean we don't waste time or energy finding a hidden way in, if there even are any."

"That's encouraging." Said Fiona.

"Realism, guilty as charged. Now, since we can't just walk in all casual, nor can we creep in, we need to think of a way to do things as they are. We've got a situation, time to make the best of it."

"So, got any ideas, bud?" Sonic chipped in.

"A few, but I'm probably not the only one."

"You said you can't tell what a person looks like with chaos sense, only if they're there at all." Fiona started, "I know using my suit won't put him off, but would it bugger his aim at all?"

"It might do." Tails admitted, "even if he knows where you are, it's still going to be disconcerting to be seeing you, but at the same time, not seeing you."

"There you go then. As long as I keep moving, anyone will have a hard time keeping tabs on me. You've all got some way of tracking me, but they don't."

"Alright." Tails nodded his assent. "And the rest of us?"

"Why don't we just walk in and take it from there?" Sonic asked, peering around. You said it won't matter how we go in, since he'll be able to see us. Planning is pretty pointless too, since he's you but even more of a git, so why don't we do it my way for once and improvise?"

"Sonic…" Sally began, but Tails cut her off.

"He's got a point. Sometimes I don't like Sonic, because he's so damn illogical. Unpredictable. There's no telling what's going to happen. My guess is that Miles is pretty similar, at least in that respect. If we don't make a plan, there's nothing for him to predict. It goes against everything I like to do, but maybe that's a good thing."

"If it means getting Amy back, then getting off this planet, then it is." Sonic agreed.

"I guess so."

_"Why are we discussing this now, then?"_ Telera signed, _"If we're just going to run in guns blazing, we might as well get moving."_

"We're stopping to rest." Fiona stated bluntly, cutting across. "Sonic, Tails, you two are going to be running this show, and I don't want you dying in the middle of it." She sounded uncharacteristically authoritative. "It means we stick around a little longer, but really, I don't like the feeling of having one of my friends die."

Such was her tone that no-one thought to argue, not even Lupin. Her change in manner had stunned them all, and much as the previous day, they dispersed into their own little groups, and Fiona dropped down beside Tails, lobbing the anarchy beryl a short distance away.

"What was that?" he asked, hesitantly.

"What was what?"

"That. You, taking charge. Why the backbone about waiting a little longer? What's go you so worried?"

"You." Fiona admitted after several seconds of awkward silence.

"Oh…I thought we'd been through this."

"We have, but I can't let it rest." The vixen sighed, "I can't. I don't know why, I just…" her voice trailed off.

Tails didn't reply – he was too busy thinking. _How big is this? Damn…_ He glanced over to her. _How much does she really feel for me, and how much do I feel about her? What am I not seeing in all this?_ Despite his great intellect, he had no idea what to do in even the most basic of relationships. It wasn't something he knew about. Now Fiona had the hots for him – he hadn't seen any signs of it beforehand.

"You're getting worse." She looked at him. It was true – in that short time his fur had become increasingly coarse, and he was fatigued as if deprived of food and sleep. Waking up had become difficult, though he knew every second he remained sapped his strength. He walked falteringly, stumbling.

He used his rings sparsely, stretching them out to last him the journey. He had twice now refused Sonic's offer to lend him the chaos emerald.

"I know. At least by the end of today we'll either be dead or escaping. I'd put our odds at about fifty-fifty."

"How so?"

"Well, either we do, or we don't." he smiled wanly. "Fiona…can I ask a favour of you? I probably don't have any right to-"

"What do you need?" she asked without hesitation, interrupting his self-pity.

"If Miles is there, I won't be able to fight him alone, not like this. I want you watching my back when I fight him."

"Me? Not Sonic?"

"No. Absolutely not. Sonic's unpredictable. I need someone I can depend on…and someone who isn't afraid to tell me what I'm doing wrong." He smiled, stronger this time. "You're the only person who stands up to me, even alone, Fiona. You're different, and I want you beside me when we finish this."

"You sure?" it was almost too much, but she had to make sure.

"Yes, I'm sure. You're stronger than you know, stronger than I might expect. There's one condition to this, if you say yes. If I tell you toleave me, you go. You don't say no, you don't hesitate. If I realise that I can't keep going, then you run. If I go down, I'm not dragging you with me."

Fiona furrowed her brow at his request. "No." she said, finally. "I won't. I won't just run because you want me to. We've done the impossible before, we've won against the odds, so we can do it again." There was such passion, such strength in her voice that Tails both felt wrong about his earlier request and emboldened by her words. She was not finished speaking. "You said I'm the only one who's ever said no to you, well' I'm saying it again. If you go down, I'm staying, or at least dragging you out behind me. Whatever happens, I'm not just leaving you to the mercy of who or whatever is in that castle."

"I never know what to make of you, Fiona. You've just defied everything I asked, turned down my demand…I might be going mad…let's do this then. If I screw up, if you're not going to do as I ask and run, then do me a new favour."

"What now?"

"If Miles kills me in there, make sure you brain the bastard."

"You've got it." The prospect of killing was normally an anathema to Fiona, but this wouldn't be just some mindless, cold-blooded murder. This would be the suppression of a dangerous man, and revenge. She wouldn't be killing just because she had been told to – this would have a reason. "He's done this much to us; it's the least I can do to repay the favour."

Tails started slightly, his eyes widening. "That's how I used to think." He said in realisation, "That's how it used to be. A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. Balance. That's what I used to fight for."

"What happened?" A confession. This was a new side to Tails, one that Fiona had never seen.

"Too much fighting." He sagged slightly. "I think I forgot what I was fighting for. War for my entire life, and I hurt me so much…It stopped being a way to keep the right fight – it became how to win."

"That sort of what it is…but there's a reason for winning. There always is."

"And I don't yet know what."

"How about us?" Fiona asked, quickly. "Isn't that enough?"

"What?"

"Fight for us. Look around – everyone is here alongside you. Make them, make _me_ the things you fight for."

"I'm not the best person to get sentimental about, Fiona." Tails grimaced in pain.

"I'm not getting sentimental, because you're not going to die here. If nothing else, I forbid you from it."

That simple comment made Tails smile. He didn't know which part of it to correct first – the fact that she was in just as much danger, or that her telling him not to die wouldn't really make a difference. That simplistic, old comment seemed enough to tell him something; it gave him a new strength, in a way.

"You've got a deal. Come on – we've got a party to crash." He lurched to his feet, flicking out a ring and absorbing its meagre energy. He stiffened slightly, his fur regaining a little of its sheen. "I have a couple of tricks left. Let's see if this gambit will pay off."

Fiona put a hand out to stop him before he could start walking again. As she climbed to her feet herself, she looked to the squirrel-girl. "Sally, you think you could carry the beryl for a bit? Tails isn't doing so good. I'm going to help him walk."

The princess looked at her quizzically for a moment, but nodded in agreement, walking to where the anarchy beryl lay and scooping it into her hand. "I'm not going to be able to go near the rest of you, am I?" she asked, suddenly.

"Just keep it away from Sonic and I." Tails told her, "You and the others don't have much of a chaos signature – it will hardly affect you. It doesn't last, either. As long as you keep the gem away from us, you're fine to get as close as you want."

She expelled a deep breath in relief. "I'd thought I might not-"

"You'll be fine." He assured her, "just keep it away from us."

Unbidden, Fiona linked her arm under Tails' arms, holding him up. He still didn't know what to make of her sudden closeness, her sudden and overpowering wish to help him in everything he did. It was unnerving, in a way, but at the same time, flattering, and…welcome. It was a new experience, but he could not deny that he was finding it strangely enjoyable.

The party rose from their camp again, setting out towards the castle, or where they thought it should be. Fiona's heart could not be dragged down, however – such closeness, and willingly, from Tails was more than she could have hoped for. She was practically shivering from the contact.

* * *

The Moebian struck out against the steel plating, her hands driving into it, leaving a wedge a few centimetres wide. She withdrew, repeating the process against a second place opposite the first. This time her hand balled into a fist, and she struck again, and again, cratering the dull metal. Drawing back her hands once more, she struck with her full force, ripping a hole through six centimetres of reinforced steel.

Spinning she brought her foot up to the remaining plate, striking it with her heel. A long scrape drew across it from the obsidian talon jutting from the back of her foot. Using her momentum to spin and plant both feet on the floor again, she struck out with one final punch, ripping the edges of the bisected piece of metal apart.

It felt good to train, good to feel every limit of her body, to know exactly what she could do…and make an advantage out of every disadvantage. She could crush metal already, flesh would be pitifully easy. Her mind had sharpened, she knew more than she had ever done before…and she was faster. Her thoughts rushed past, impossibly clear to her. Although she was not yet as powerful as the one who had done this to her, her mind was no doubt far superior to that of any other. Far stronger than the one she mirrored. Well, she would find out soon…they approached.

A snap of her fingers saw the plates retract into holes in the wall for repair. Retrieving her blade and strapping it to her belt, she left the practise room, trading the retractable panels for carved stone. Waiting by the door with nothing short of annoyance, Scourge pushed himself from the stone, striding after her.

"You were in there for ages." He complained.

"And?" the woman replied.

"What the fuck were you doing?"

"Training. Breaking steel. What do you think? Imbecile."

"You can shut with the fuckin' insults. I don't need to take your shit – I can bail whenever the fuck I please."

The Moebian woman stopped and twisted, punching Scourge across the jaw and sending him reeling into the wall. "You'll be putting up with it for as long as I want. There's nothing you can do – you try to escape, we both know our mutual friend will make sure you don't get very far."

"Anima can't do shit to stop me." Scourge spat through bloody lips.

"I wasn't talking about Anima."

Scourge stared at her for a moment, then lurched to his feet, wiping away the blood. "Then you're just fucking about. Miles won't fucking care."  
"He will if it means killing you." The other's voice was emotionless. "I don't think you realise the situation you're in." the woman moved, closing her hand around Scourges throat and pinning him to the wall. The motion happened so fast that the green hedgehog had next to no time to react, and he hesitated, thus he now was hanging from the wall, slowly running out of oxygen. "If you stick to the plan, you have a vague chance of coming out alive. If you attempt to leave without doing so, one of us will make sure that you don't manage to leave the castle."

Abruptly she released Scourge and wheeled away, leaving him gasping for breath. She didn't look back at him – he was beneath her notice. As she turned a corner and left him behind, Anima materialised next to her, pacing to match her speed.

"You have a strange method of discipline." The AI noted.

"You're not going to judge me though." The other replied with a tone that brokered no argument.

"Of course not. I just thought you might want to know that Miles is pleased with your progress. That little display back there almost made him smile."  
"You've become a judge of character." The woman remarked.

"Lord Miles has recently upgraded my emotional modulator. I am now capable of both measuring and simulating emotion."

"And how about your imaging software?"

"It is still in development. Currently I need several hours with a target to successfully generate their likeness. I have four schematics stored in my database at the present time."

"State them." The girl ordered.

Lapsing into her data delivery, Anima turned to staring ahead, adopting a blank expression and monotone voice. "Subject: Miles Prower. Subject: Scourge The Hedgehog. Subject: Amy Rose. Subject:-"

"I know my name."

"I understand. However, it is not you that I have stored in my database. I have not spent sufficient time in your vicinity. Remaining subject: Matthias Acorn."

"And Alicia?"

"Miles requested that she be removed from the database. I complied." Anima blinked. "I assume he has his reasons, but it is not my station to question him."

"Rightly so. What is the progress of our guests?"

"They will be at the castle by early evening."

The other stopped. "It appears I have made an error in my judgement." Her eyes narrowed in irritation. "Are we prepared to greet them?"  
"No." Anima answered, bluntly.

"Send Scourge to greet them then – make him meet them at the castle steps. Make sure he delays them long enough for our own work to be completed. Begin awakening Matthias."

"The procedure is not yet complete-"

"Do it." She glared at the AI. "We can finish the procedure at the end, if he survives. I want him ready for this. Hook him up to a temporary rig if necessary. Delay as long as you can, finish as much of the procedure as possible, but ensure he is ready by the time they reach us."

"As you command."

* * *

The treeline ended abruptly, the castle looming ahead. Outside it appeared very medieval, a very classic, large with crenulations and towers. The Mobian team knew that inside that the whole place would be full of technology very much intent on killing them. The party stopped for a moment, both to admire the structure and to overcome their silent fears and anxieties about entering that edifice.

"This is it, huh." Sonic remarked.

"This is it." Tails confirmed, motioning for Fiona to release her grip. He stumbled and limped a bit, finally gaining his footing to stand side by side with Sonic.

"You ready for this, buddy?" Sonic, unlike his friend and colleague, was suffering from the same dilapidation but was protected by his chaos emerald, the effects slowed dramatically.

"Of course I'm fucking not." Tails wheezed. "I'm probably going to die when I go in there, but we don't have a choice. We've come this far, so we're not turning back now. If I screw up in there, hell, if I just can't make it, I'm going to make sure Miles knows that I died opposing him."

A tap on the shoulder snapped him from the view, and before he knew it, Sonic had dumped the chaos emerald in his hand. Tails didn't protest – instead he drank of the energies, letting them revitalise him. It would not heal the damage done to him now, but it would ensure that he was at the best he could be, given the circumstances. Once done, he passed the gem back to Sonic.

"You sure?" the hedgehog asked.

"I'm sure. Good luck in there." Tails grinned, his happiest expressions since they had set foot on Moebius.

Sonic gave him a thumbs-up. "You too man; we're going to fuckin' waste this guy."

"I hope so." Tails frowned. "You can drop the colour. Scourge will be there, and I want to know who is who." Abruptly the kitsune spun to look at the others. He had one last thing to say.

"This is it. We've come through this, and now we're entering the endgame. I feel like shit and doubtless some of you do too. So I'm going to say it now. Fuck Miles. Fuck Scourge. Fuck them all. We came here to get our friend back, and that's what we're going to do. He made a mistake making us come here, and I intend to show him the consequences." He looked carefully into each of their eyes. "Come on," he told them, _"Let's get this done."_


	10. Scarlet Veil iv

The met Scourge at the steps.

As they reached the bottom he appeared, striding from the doorway and making his way towards them, a grin of insufferable superiority on his face. He stopped halfway, watching them silently for moments, maintaining the grin.

Sonic, his usual blue self returned, stepped forward. "Get outta the way." He told the green hedgehog, bluntly.

Scourge watched him, still silent, then broke into laughter. Between coughs and chuckles, he spoke. "She…she left you? No fuckin' wonder! Haha! And you lot…you lot came after her? Man you're fuckin' dense!"

"Don't bother, Scourge." Tails interrupted, taking on a dark manner. "They're with me."

The hedgehog stopped laughing almost immediately. He regarded Tails for a moment, then hesitantly asked, "Miles?"

"What do you think, you imbecile?" the fox kept his voice level. "Of course I'm going to come in the front door. You think I enjoy crawling through vents? You're a gutterslug, Scourge, but I'm not. Out of the way, these lot are coming inside." He began to make his way up the steps. After hesitation of their own, the others followed. Sonic fell into step beside Tails, in the intervening moments before he would be in earshot, and caught a few words from his friend. "On my signal." It was barely even a whisper, but Sonic understood his meaning.

Scourge stepped slightly to the side on the wide steps to allow the party to pass, fear of what Miles might do overcoming his vanity. The moment they drew level, Tails whispered to his friend again.

"Get him."

Sonic had been waiting for those two words – he had tensed, his thoughts had directed themselves to this moment…he was angry, no doubt about that. This guy was Scourge the hedgehog, he had screwed around with Amy as much as Miles had, whoever he was, and he deserved this.  
When the hedgehog moved, no-one had been expecting it – he moved too fast to see. Levelling with Scourge, his hand whipped out, thundering across the other's jaw. The strength of the blow, augmented by rage and chaos energy, tossed the green hedgehog from the steps with a bloody mouth once again. Sonic followed, very much pissed off.

This wasn't a normal opponent, however; Scourge's mind was just as fast as Sonic, he saw everything and reacted at the same pace. By the time he hit the ground he knew what was going on, and as his feet hit solid ground he blasted away, evading the spindash his counterpart followed with. Sonic plunged into the ground, excavating dirt by way of his missed attack.

Scourge had a brief moment's respite, enough for his biologically accelerated mind to respond. He curled too, his own spines pointing outwards, hardening like diamond, and he sped forward.

The two clashed, spitting sparks and respective power in the clash, then the two came apart for a split second, then were back on the attack. Impacts rung out, the power generated by noise alone in their immediate vicinity enough to flatten plant life and more than enough to kill a Mobian were he to get too close.

Midway, Scourge broke the chain, his foot swinging out to connect with Sonic's less-protected side. The force of the strike knocked Sonic too out of motion, throwing him against the castle wall. The impact cracked the stonework. He had the briefest of pauses before the green hedgehog slammed into him at the speed of sound.

Or at least, that would have been the case if Sonic had still been there. The hedgehog never remained in one place for long, no matter how hurt he was. Now he was already zigzagging across the trampled ground, his path so erratic it was a job for the other hedgehog to keep up. They resumed the game of cat and mouse, the rest of the Mobians watching in bemusement, their own eyes and minds incapable of registering the two blurs flitting about below them.

"Sonic's got this one." Tails told them definitively, beginning to limp ahead up the steps. "Come on – let's go find Miles, and Amy, and finish this." He paused as the others made to follow. "Sally, come on." He told the squirrel; she hadn't moved. "You stay here, it only makes things harder. Scourge won't be afraid to use you against him if he remembers you're still here. Your husband has this in the bag, don't make it harder for him."

Sally's eyes lingered on the battle, clearly reluctant to leave Sonic's side, but she acquiesced, following Tails and the other teammates into the castle. The ebony doors inlaid with gold threat and Megatal bars were wide open for their approach – apparently Miles was expecting them. Tails noted the professionalism; he knew that they would take the castle apart with very little effort to get to him, so why waste resources? There was still a chance the Moebian vulpine would win, and he wanted his holdings intact if he did.

"Hey." The voice startled Tails, and weapons snapped up at the sound. Leaning against the wall, quite casually, Nicole was watching them silently.

"Took your time."

"Nicole?" Tails asked, dumbly.

The Ai let out a howling laugh that echoed along the halls. "That failed prototype? You must be joking. You're the other Miles, right? You look like him, if a little…bedraggled. But to answer your question, call me Anima. That's what I'm always called."

"Told you he had an AI." Tails told the others, then looked back to Anima. "I'm guessing you run the castle."

"Yes, that's pretty much it. It's not as if Miles needs any other staff with me around. It's not the only thing I can do, though. I wouldn't be any better than Nicole was I not able to perform above and beyond her, would I?"

"What sort of things?" Tails was almost hesitant to ask.

"I was really, _really_ hoping you would say that." Anima told him, then thrust her arm out. From it spewed a stream of crystal, solidified from the air itself. Tails braced himself for an impact…that never came. Hovering just shy of his face were a pair of gleaming gold rings. Lupin clutched one in each hand.

The stream of crystals splintered and shattered against them, but the wolf could feel his power ebbing. "You're going to let us through." He growled through the pain, "Because I have a deal that I think Miles will very much enjoy, and I don't like it when people don't listen to me!" he ended with a roar, punching the rings forward, ducking under them towards the avatar. His blade slashed through the air, depowered – he had used the rings in them defending Tails – cutting through the hard-light hologram. The attack was futile – if it hadn't been for the shock charge.

In the same motion that he had used to pluck the rings from his wrist generators, he had deftly snatched a shock charge from Telera's belt. The moment the wound in the light appeared, he bit down on the detonator then rammed it into the damage, leaping backwards. The grenade exploded in a flash of light and electricity, and the hologram dissolved in a wash of static and screeching.

"Electro-magnetic pulse." He offered as explanation.

_"How did you know it would work?"_ Telera signed, to earn a toothy grin from the hunter.

"I didn't. Sometimes you take a gamble to catch your prey. I don't know the specifics – computer shit's never been my strong point. Tails, how long until she recovers?"

The fox thought for a brief moment. "You only damaged her animation system. She's still fully active but for that. She can't manifest and attack us physically, but she can make life difficult. Not bad though- but what did you mean? About a deal?"

For a moment, for a scarce instant the wolf looked lost for words, but he found them. "Playing for time. She stopped to think about what I was talking about. You know I don't think that far ahead, Tails. I find prey, I kill it by any means necessary. Simple as that."

"It doesn't feel right." Sally cut in. "Tails, you said Miles is just as smart as you."

"If not smarter." He agreed.

"Right, then wouldn't he have known to build some sort of failsafe into Anima for this sort of eventuality? How can we shut her down, or that part of her, just like that?"

"Point taken." His mood darkened again. "We're missing something. I'm sure of it now. This isn't right. We should be attacked from all angles by whatever Miles can think of. He's flamboyant sometimes, he likes to enjoy things – he has very little else to enjoy. He's a professional, but he's good at showing it. This isn't Miles." His eyes went wide, and he spun to face the others. "Whoever is doing this, it isn't Miles. It speaks of his cold intelligence, but none of his refinement or aesthetic that he applies to even the most serious situation. We've fallen into a trap, and I don't know who has built it, and I don't know the way out."

_[Why don't you find out?]_

The words were not spoken – they were printed, a two-dimensional hologram on the air in front of them.

_[That was a good hit, but you only knocked that out for a bit. Go ahead, let's see your deal.]_

Lights activated, lining a path out ahead. No doubt leading further into the spider's web, but for lack of a better option… "We all agreed?" Lupin asked behind him. It wasn't as if there was any need to ask what he referred to. Tails nodded his agreement, the others swiftly after.

The wolf taking point, they started to walk, guided by the globes of light Anima summoned for them. As they walked, each party member noticed a different detail that they felt useful. Lupin, his seasoned eye, examined every niche and crack, every little space that could be used as leverage for speed. Tails, technologically minded, examined weak points in wires and fittings, taking careful not of the arrangement of bolts holding them together.

Fiona, though her recall was nowhere near as perfect as the other two, watched for the overall layout. Every raised walkway, every bannister she examined their style and placing, determining lines of fire and escape routes. Telera and Sally both looked to the width and length of corridors, trying to see how far and fast they could move without turning or breaking momentum. Speed would be of the essence for the two Mobians, both oriented for close combat.

But they couldn't but help notice the designs marking the walls, ceiling, and in some cases, the floor. Every tapestry, every mural painted or etched, featured either Miles or Alicia in some capacity. Rare was it that a piece did not, and those were oft the ones carved into the floor, which instead were marked in the shape of intricate patterns and designs.

Abruptly the hallways stopped, leading into an antechamber with a Yin & Yang symbol carved into the stone floor, a precious gem set into the circles. The group approached the centre, eyes darting around for something, anything out of place…but they did not know the world, or the palace. There was no way they could know, and they looked anyway.

The words formed in the air once again. _[I apologise for the inconvenience, but you did destroy my projector. We could have done this a lot faster otherwise. This will be over with quickly.]_

From the end of the chamber came a loud cracking and the sound of winding gears. They came from the massive double doors, less impressive than the entrance to the castle itself, but built more solidly. Built almost entirely out of Megatal, it started to rumble, great beams from behind it sliding away and locks unlatching themselves. It swung open almost silently when the time came, the hinges well-oiled and the grooves in the floor smoothly cut to within micrometres of their specifications.

The doors opened dramatically onto the throne room, possibly the largest chamber in the palace to speak of, the walls were buttressed and a long, wide, red and gold-lined carpet led to the throne itself, a figure sitting in the arms of that magnificently-carved piece of furniture. Whoever it was, it wasn't Miles.

"Hello, all of you. So good you could come." The voice carried effortlessly the length of the chamber. It was undoubtedly female, but a haze obscured the figure, and the voice was if it had been overlaid with a dozen others – impossible to put a face to. "You will have to excuse my lack of hospitality. It's not as if I wanted you to get here, but after seeing your…_persistence_…I felt it only fair. Mr Prower, you're looking like you're back from the dead. Has the planet not been very kind?"

Tails coughed, using the barest of chaos energy to amplify his voice enough to carry the chamber. "I'm not going to give anything to the one I can't see a face of. How about you show us what we're dealing with?"

"But of course!" the woman sounded enthusiastic. "Come closer, all of you. The mist should dissipate the more you move forward. I have a little of that – oh, how did Miles put it – a flair for the dramatic? We all have our little vices, don't we, Tails?"

"Who are you?" he commanded she answer as he began to approach.

"I'd have thought it obvious." The others started to follow him, increasingly wary of their surroundings. "I'm close to Miles, I can manipulate Anima. I'm treating you with courtesy because I know you won't leave here in your current state. You can guess if you like, but you're…ooh…a dozen steps from finding out anyway."

She was right – the haze and mist that obscured her ended suddenly, as if they had pierced the veil, and Tails stopped dead as he realised who he was looking at. It couldn't be…no…

"Surprised?" he could see her in front of him, but the voice had not changed. It still reverberated as if many spoke as one. "Come on, Miles is a smart guy. It's not as if he couldn't work it out."

A second later, the others crossed that border between fog and clarity, and the figure on the throne twisted her head imperceptibly to look to one of the others. "Déjà vu." She remarked casually. "It's like looking in a mirror, isn't it, Fiona?"

The vixen looked as if she had seen a ghost. Her face changed visibly, her features twisting into one of hatred and confusion.

"No-" she began, to be cut off by her counterpart.

"Oh, since I know your name, you might as well know mine. I'm Felicia. It's a much better name, really. A lot better for planetary ruler than Fiona. Yours is such a common name really, and I doubt anyone would want to be ruled by one of the proles."

That was a little too far for Fiona. She started forward, about to cross the remaining space between her and the steps to the throne.

High-calibre bullets raked the floor space ahead of her. Stone chips flew from the steps, pinging off her face and pushing her back. As abruptly as it had begun, the fire stopped.

"Thank you, Matthias." Felicia said with a smile off in the direction of the gunfire to receive a grumbling roar in response. Then she looked back to the Mobians, as if remembering they were there. "Oh, you haven't met Matthias, have you? Well, he's not in the best state to talk, but introductions must be made!" a snap of her fingers. "Hey, matt, our friends would like to meet you."

He appeared from a carefully-shadowed area of the throne room, grunting and rumbling as he made his way into the light.

"Matthias Acorn." Felicia introduced, watching Sally carefully. "In your universe I think he's called Elias. What do you think of your step-brother, princess?"

Sally could say nothing, only stare in horror at her brother's counterpart. Matthias Acorn was nothing of the Moebian he had once been. He now towered thrice their height, as if a giant from Overlander legends, a mass of muscle and ragged fur, but not even entirely that. His arms and legs had been fitted with pistons to further increase his power, his eyes were both bionic, and no doubt he had several internal enhancements of various shaping. Welded to a brace on his left forearm was a quad-barrelled machine cannon, no doubt the source of the fire from earlier. The ammunition feed snaked along brackets on his arm to a drum fused to the metal on his back. Each of his hands now sported fine ebony claws, each one scraping loudly against the stone as he made his ponderous way to his owner's side. He dragged himself like a primate, on all four limbs, clanking forward, each step a thundering rumble against the hard floors.

"Miles' last gift to me." Felicia told them over the din of the beast's approach. "He's a master of biotech, so he decided to make something fitting. I made my own modifications, of course, a few personal touches. A girl has to have a hobby on top of her main thing. Now, if you would be so kind-"

She never got to finish the sentence. Sally, enraged by the damage done to Matthias – though she had no connection to him, the knowledge of what Felicia was willing to do was enough – she pushed past Fiona, pulling the Love II handgun from her belt and yanking on the trigger. The weapon was loaded with HS rounds, the signature bullet for the gun, a shot that punched forward at thrice its velocity the moment it hit the target. Three shots left the chamber in quick succession, splitting the air between her and Felicia.

Each three shots, all manufactured to be able to punch through six centimetres of reinforced steel and dent Megatal, exploded in mid-air in bright green flashes of energy. Felicia, lowering her hand, sighed deeply. "I was really looking forward to the monologue, you know." she shook her head. "Ah well, you've really spoilt the moment. Matthias, kill them. Kill them all."

At her command, the hulking monstrosity at her side surged forward with a speed enhanced by drugs, steroids and pneumatic pistons towards the group of Mobians arrayed in front of him. He moved for Sally first, her being the one who had actively threatened to kill Felicia, his cannon raking the floor wildly.

Telera reacted first, yanking another two shock charges from her belt, arming them and tossing them towards Matthias. They exploded in violet starbursts against his skin, but the Moebian's nervous system was already wrecked utterly and completely – he barely felt the pain at all, blotted out by the damage already done and the pain-deadening drugs pumping through his system. The electrical discharge momentarily halted the stream of bullets, their firing mechanism locked out temporarily as he bore down on the princess. Fiona dove aside from his charge, dragging Tails with her to the ground as he continued past. The others fell back, the princess still firing with her handgun, the shots far more effective against this target. The rest of the seventeen shots were emptied in the matter of seconds it took for Matthias to close the distance. Half those shots went wild, the rest found their mark in one location or another. A tight cluster totally shredded the cannon, the bullet feet dangling uselessly from his upper arm. One shattered a piston on his leg, but there was another on the opposite side, powering him on. Another cracked an armoured plate welded to his head. The remaining four embedded themselves in his hulking chest, pulping now-defunct organs and tissue. It must have struck something painful – he stumbled with a bellow, rage fogging his mind and blinding him to anything but the princess, and he charged, all thought for his own preservation gone.

Telera, Lupin and Sally fell back under his charge, but they could not hope to outrun him.

Sally saw Telera twist away, but had no time to wonder why before the behemoth was above her, his backhand spinning her to the ground, hard. Above her now she heard Lupin's claws scraping as he changed direction to come to her aid, but he would be too late.

Matthias' claws came up, clasping together to crush her in one hammer-blow, his mouth giving voice to a screeching roar of triumph before his clawed paws descended, crushing through the stone.

Sally had thought she would be dead…but no, her eyes snapped open as they re-materialised, the jump-generator on Lupin's chest half-drained from the short-range teleportation. Then she understood – that instant she had felt hands on her had not been the beast's hands, but Lupin's as he dragged her into the fold of his generator and pulled her meters away from the giant.

The thing milled, confused by the sudden disappearance of its target, trying to find her again. His eyes glinted as he did so, shifting his bulk and gearing up for another charge moments before Telera landed on his back and dug a pair of stun-guns into the back of her opponent, just above the ammunition drum. Both had been geared up to maximum, sending volts of electricity through the man, sending muscle groups into spasm. His charge faltered, his arms refusing to respond and he toppled forward, the force of his landing throwing Telera from his back. They had seconds before he recovered.

Away from the battle, at the foot of the throne steps, Fiona pulled Tails to his feet with one hand, the other holding the anarchy beryl she had pulled from Sally the moment the gun had fired the first time. They faced Felicia, both cautious and tired by now of both this world and the fighting.

"You're still staying?" Tails muttered under his breath.

"I told you I would, didn't I?" Fiona replied tersely, eyes still fixed on her counterpart.

"Then take a few steps back, would you? I want to be able to use my chaos powers without having to worry about hitting you or interfering with the anarchy beryl. I'm in enough pain as it is, and I don't want to do this knowing I managed to wing you with a chaos spear." Fiona understood his warning and took a couple of paces back, positioning the anarchy beryl on her belt, and assembling her judgement assault rifle.

"How brave of you. Even like this, fatigued from travel and drained by our world, you still stand against me. Fitting, I suppose." Felicia smiled, rising from the throne as multi-coloured energy played around her fingertips. Tails met her gaze unfalteringly.

"When I arrived here, I knew I would have days at best to get this job done. Sonic can run back, I can't. I don't have the speed, though I wish I did. I prolonged my life by using my rings sparingly, to make sure I arrived her to face you, but I did neglect one thing." He grinned a feral, humourless grin. "I told Fiona that I had a few tricks left up my sleeve. So guess what, this is one of them."

He glanced back at Fiona, then to Felicia again.

It came down to this. One balled fist move to his chest, and he opened his mouth to give voice to a shout.

_"Super form, five thousand rings!"_


	11. Rescue Mission i

So that was it – this ace up his sleeve, his last ploy to unveil.

Tails had been hiding a super form.

_He had almost died._

He had expected to face Miles, to battle him when he had been worn down by the universe around him, so he had come prepared for that fight.

_He had almost killed himself to pull this stunt._

That was the deal with chaos transformations. Each one was innate within the user's genetic code, or so the male fox had explained, to be unlocked by the chaos emeralds. The emeralds served as a key, he said, but also to provide a stable tunnel with which to funnel this immense power. Because chaos energy and ring energy were almost synonymous, a user could keep a chaos form running provided he had enough rings or chaos energy, and therein lay the problem.

A chaos transformation took an enormous amount of ring energy in comparison to the chaos emeralds, the amount necessary to actually trigger the transformation increasing exponentially with each level of power…and that was only the transformation. If the user activated a form with the chaos emeralds, their link to the master emerald could sustain the form for an indefinite period of time.

Not so with rings – they each held a finite amount of energy, so if a form was induced through them, you were limited to how many rings you were carrying, minus the clout taken out of them to transform. Tails had used five thousand rings to transform, and four thousand, nine hundred of said rings were required in transformation. That left him with about a hundred…

"I've got five minutes, maybe six." Super Prower Tails sighed, examining the claws of one glowing hand. He liked what he saw, all things considered. When he had first seen it, Tails hadn't liked his super form – it was too bland, just him, but glowing an even brighter shade of yellow. And the birds! Who's idea had it been to programme his DNA to give him birds in his super form? Alright, yea, they were invincible and good projectiles, but…birds!  
But he was a chaos adept, and a smart one, and he made some changes.

Now he stood there, at the foot of the Moebian throne, admiring and examining the modifications he had made. The birds no longer twittered around his head – they were gone, pulled back into the vast reservoir of chaos energy that a super form granted, to be summoned at his leisure. No, he hadn't eliminated them completely. He was nostalgic like that.

His fur had dulled, taking on a subtle black undertone while remaining pale yellow in itself, his pupils greying until they were almost invisible in the white eyes around them.

"But…you'll be fine after that?" Fiona asked from behind him. It wasn't rocket science that this battle had just gone out of her league. "Super form heals you, doesn't it?"

He cocked his head sideways, smirking. "I wish. I'll be fine…for now, but not here. I won't heal. On Mobius we don't have to worry about perpetual poisoning, but in the here and now, even in this form it is only stalling the decomposition. It's safe to say I won't get any worse while I remain like this, but I'll still be a wreck when I change back."

"Not get any worse? My my, you really haven't put this into perspective. You're going to get a _lot_ worse." Felicia had watched the exchange calmly, a condescending smile still on her face. I know I could just let you piss about until you run out of rings, but I don't have all day." She cracked her knuckles ominously, starting to make the descent from the seat. "And I really do want that Anarchy Beryl back." She leered at her counterpart, an expression that Fiona had hoped that she herself couldn't make. Then she moved, fast.

Fiona saw her disappear into a blur of crimson fur, slashing through the air towards the only thing that had a hope in hell of hitting back – the super-powered Tails. He raised his hands and blocked, closing his around her fists, and the two locked for a moment, a brief instant in time punctured by the bellow and crack of the other fight in the chamber. Sally and the other two were surviving, barely.

Then the two adepts broke apart, Felicia a lightning arc twisting through the air, returning at yet another angle. She closed as Tails slammed a fist out to his side, and clipped her shoulder. The blow spun her about, skewed her aim and sent her careening into the ceiling, dust and stone raining down on Tails as he moved to shield Fiona from the worst.

"Four minutes left, m'dear." Felicia informed him, dropping from the ceiling, no more worse for wear. Her feet met his namesakes as she landed, a spitting, blazing discharge of energy as bright as any sun. Tails spun on his heel, taking the moment of pause to strike his claws over her face. She pulled back as he did so, jerking just out of range, but she was still close. His claws tore at the mesh armour she wore and the skin behind it, leaving the armour itself in rags and the flesh with a trio of raking marks down the upper arm.

His attack had left him vulnerable. No less vulnerable than a super form could be, but vulnerable nonetheless, and Felicia's spiked boot cracked across his own face, scoring directly. She couldn't puncture chaos-armoured flesh with an attack so weak, but the force of the blow was enough to create a shockwave, powerful enough to knock Fiona down and stagger Tails with her.

_By Nimbus she was strong!_

He threw out a chaos wave, a kinetic shockwave to prevent a follow-up, to recover…his blurred and starry vision returned to clarity, and he saw the wound that he had inflicted…or rather, where it had been. The armour was still shredded, but the flesh had sealed and regrown, fur revealing no trace of any previous ailment. "How?" he asked, stupidly.

"You think I'd fight you without some precautions first? Really now." She leant forward again, propelling herself against him, once again clashing in a furious shower of sparks, twin shields battering each other viciously, energy spending itself to no avail.

His broke first. Tails was weakened mentally by his travel, and as such the willpower required to keep the shield up was wavering and faulty. Felicia dug her claws into his arms the moment it failed, pulling him to the ground with blood leaking from where the claws had torn through even his chaos-empowered skin.

The vixen glared down at him, eyes ablaze with fury and perverse thoughts.

_Fucking hell…_ He snapped mentally, realising his way out. _No time for a portal…ugh, this is going to hurt._

He opened his mouth, baring his fangs to the girl, and a chaos dragon erupted from his throat, expanding as it left his mouth and hurling Felicia from him, across the room like a ragdoll. He had made some modifications to the birds' appearance. The beast shrunk again to falcon size, perching on his outstretched arm and watching him calmly rise to his feet.

"The hell-" Fiona began, and was cut off as the dragon took flight, accompanied suddenly by a phoenix conjured from the air, the two beasts of flight ripping air apart, bearing down on Felicia.

She was lightning-fast. The dragon's maw opened, before her hand clamped around its neck and swung him round in the air, connecting him with the phoenix with a resounding crack. The two chaos-incarnations fell in a tangle to the floor, Felicia finishing the manoeuvre by bringing her foot down on their heads.

Along with the pent-up anarchy energy stored within it.

"I bet that used up a bit of energy." She turned from their ashen remains back to Tails. "I'd say you have, ooh…two minutes? Less?" she sounded confident, but the energy required to rip apart both of the chaos constructs had taken its toll – her own face was drained somewhat, her first real admission of weakness.

Tails committed his third modified bird to the fray, a large falcon with flaming wings, the creature slicing past Felicia at breakneck speeds, the vixen spinning to strike out at it. Her attack missed, claws falling short as the bird dodged out of reach and wheeled for another attack.

From her hand erupted a stream of needles, concentrated anarchy energy all, and ripped through the fragile energy construct, leaving naught behind but a sour tang in the air. She completed her spin to face Tails again, and only just parried his namesakes in his follow-up attack. Blows were traded in showers of sparks and power, chaos energy meeting anarchy energy, spears clashed with needles and claws tore at flesh.

Tails' seconds wound down tick by tick, ring power dribbling from him with each attack and defence, his life force drained though sustained combat.

Felicia wasn't looking any worse for wear – not until the pained male fox committed his last chaos demon to the fight. Two things happened simultaneously.

The first thing was the wall behind the throne cracked and shattered as Sonic and Scourge's fight finally reached the throne room. It distracted the vixen for a split second, long enough for a blood-red incarnation of Fiona herself to erupt from the air and lock grips with Felicia. It became a battle of wills once again, chaos energy battling anarchy energy, both combatants firing every shred of their reserves into this explosive last stand.

Even Tails, as smart as he was, probably wouldn't have won if Fiona, the real Fiona, hadn't intervened. She had told him that she would help, but she hadn't thought of doing it like this until now.

The judgement rifle is a powerful weapon, one of the first in a series of high-power energy weapons, three types of fire methods with enough power to crack Megatal. Against an opponent like Felicia, such a weapon would have proved entirely useless. Even now, acting under her own steam, she could grabble with a super form – a weapon designed for non-adepts would do its damage, but she could heal. Even the sunburst shot, taken as the most powerful ammunition type, probably couldn't do any lasting damage.

So Fiona threw the charge pack itself into the aura of spitting energy between Felicia and the pseudo-Fiona, trying to ignore the uncanny resemblance of both of them. The packed charge full of untapped energy met the flaring auras of both beings…and the casing shattered. The armoured shell designed to prevent this sort of occurrence shattered under combined waves of anarchy and chaos energy, and it exploded. The explosion was something akin to the birth of a new star.

A shockwave rippled out from the epicentre, a wash of heat and kinetic energy. Tails, still in super form, absorbed the power, buying him a few seconds of survival – so did the chaos-apparition.

Felicia, for all her power and strength, didn't know how to absorb it. All of her power had gone into cracking this thing in front of her, her defences had come down to throw more at it, so when it exploded and unleashed several million joules of energy into the immediate area, she was flash-fried, liquefied.

The stone burned and melted under the extreme heat, burned to a smooth finish, the air taking on the tang of burning flesh and rock. It was not a nice smell.

Of the two living beings within the radius of the explosion, one survived. Fiona, who had been at the brink of it when it exploded, was caught in the aftershock, caught in a searing wave of burning heat and light, and thrown away as if discarded.

"Fuck- no!" Tails abandoned his chaos-apparition, sucking his super form back into himself and reverting to normal, a rare moment of adrenalin and concern lending him the speed – both mentally and physically – to conjure and program two rings and cast them towards Fiona before she could strike the ground again. One at her head and another at her feet caught alight, crystal running from one to the other, encasing the brutally injured vixen in a stasis-cage, before the whole construction crashed to the floor.

Sonic caught her. Even fighting an anarchy adept just as fast as he was, he still diverted himself to catch Fiona before the fragile construction could shatter against the stone. He caught the whole thing in both arms, halting and lowering it with somewhat more care to the ground before he spun, striking out with his feet and catching Scourge on the chin before the green Moebian could do any more damage. It was the first real hit of their combat. Both hedgehogs bore their share of cuts and bruises, but mostly from their own slip-ups when cornering or going through walls.

Scourge reeled from the blow, his speed arrested completely by that rage-fuelled kick, and he stopped on the floor, wiping blood from his mouth.

"Took ya long enough." He jeered.

"It's pretty good, since you managed to do fuck-all with me, man." Sonic laughed, soaking up the insult without even the faintest hint of giving a damn, in spite of his weariness. Just like Tails, he was feeling the effects of the 'Anarchy Effect'. His chaos emerald kept him going, but the process was slowed. His wounds took longer to heal, his fatigue took longer to fade. Scourge was at the other end – this was his home soil. Here, he was at his peak. "Scourge, I'm runnin' this fast because I actually want to get somewhere. Stop fuckin' prancing around and actually hit me!"

"Piss off, Sonic. You're screwed either way, ya know. You and your friends…they're all fucked. I'm just makin' it faster." He raised one hand. "I know you're all fucking dead. I just want to be the one to kill you. More fun that way. Anarchy Conflagration!" he shouted suddenly, and liquid fire spewed from his hand, lashing through the air towards Sonic.

He was moving already, darting around, over and under Scourge's attack and cannonballing into the other, smashing him from his feet and carrying him into the air. The Moebian's hand swung wildly, the fire spraying out at random, some of it splashing Matthias' already ravaged form before Scourge realised his mistake and cut the spray, taking to the chase once more. His duel resumed to the increased bellows of rage and pain from Matthias.

The behemoth was far from done. His system was in pain but no more so than before, pumped full of painkillers almost constantly, mixed in with steroids and other muscle-enhancers. He winced and bellowed as he could when the stuff splattered over his fur, but paid it no mind – he was still intent on killing Sally. He didn't seem to notice the damage until some of it found its way to the ammunition drum on his back…and ignited. All thousand shots high-explosive shells loaded into that pack cooked off as one, a bursting, popping explosion of bullets that lifted his entire, multi-tonne bulk and threw him into the wall.

The wall gave out first, reinforced and restructured bone-networks cracking but holding under the impact. Once again Sally, Lupin and Telera were given a brief reprieve from the brutal murder the artificial nightmare was trying to wreak upon them. They rallied together, sharing nods of thanks and trying to come up with a way to take him down permanently.

"In my clan, we didn't take on those larger than us unless we had the numbers to do so." Lupin chastised Sally.

"I didn't try to kill this guy!" she defended.

"You emptied a pistol into his torso. I think that counts as hostility. We can't kill him. The three of us don't have the strength, Sonic is occupied, Tails is next to dead and there is a good chance that Fiona _is_ dead. All this to save someone who really didn't deserve it."

_"Lupin, this isn't the time."_

"Yes it is." He rounded on the tigress. "I've been trying to tell you all, the entire time, that this was an entire waste of our time. So you know what, fuck this." He snapped at the other two. "I'm done. I tried to tell you, and you wouldn't listen. All the while I'm hearing about this 'Miles' character, this counterpart to our half-dead friend over there. He gets things done, from what I've heard. You don't piss around wasting resources with him, you do the job right and only if it's worth doing. I'm liking him more and more, so you can go kill this bastard by yourselves." He jabbed one thumb back over at Matthias, the beast still prising himself from the wall, shaking his head to clear it. "You can keep up with this futile struggle. I'm a hunter. I take the advantage, and Miles looks like he's got it. Good fucking luck, you two."

He tapped his chest-teleporter – the drive still had enough charge left for about half a mile – and disappeared. For a crucial moment, Sally nor Telera could quite get what just happened.

"Did he…" Sally tried to speak.

_"He abandoned us."_ Telera finished for her. _"Walked out. He's right – now we definitely can't beat Matthias."_

"But we can damn-well try." Behind them, Tails pushed himself to his feet, limping forward. He used his remaining rings, the half a dozen he had formed from the backwash of energy, to replenish himself. It bought him an hour, at best. "Felicia is dead, Fiona's unconscious, Sonic's occupied and Lupin pissed off." He looked to the two women. "I have to admit, I no longer have the strength to fight back…I can help, but my chaos powers are all but gone, and I'm slow. I won't be able to do much, but I have a plan."

"I'm listening." Sally hugged him, glad that he had survived the fight, but fearing for his safety anyway.

"It's not much of one…but Sonic is still in pretty good condition. Even if Scourge does some pain work on him, he's got the chaos emerald. He can heal to an extent I can't. If we can…if we can hold Matthias back, stay alive long enough for Sonic to finish what he's doing, he'll be able to take our mutant friend apart."

"That's your plan? Just keep fighting and hope none of us die?"

"Go ahead, rebuke me for it. It's not much of one, I know, but I can't think of anything else – Telera, find Amy." He jerked round to the tigress suddenly. "Go find her. We came here for her and we haven't done anything even remote to actually look for her. You've got a wrist-tracker, and her hammer has a locator in it. Get going."

_**"But what about you?"**_ Telera signed, fear for her friends evident.

"I told you, my chaos powers…aren't gone. They're drained, but not quite gone just yet. If you can get Amy back, that hammer might be useful, and then we can get out of here, whether or not everyone else is dead. She's what we came for, not this." He gestured to the lumber Matthias as he finally shook off the concussion and rounded on them, roaring spit and blood at them. "Go!" he shoved her as best he could, and turned to face the charge. They had seconds.

"Sally, my rings are gone. I've got low-powered chaos attacks and that's it. I'll be relying on you to hit him where it matters. Take out the pistons – make them dead weight. That will slow him down." He opened his hands, palming orbs of chaos energy.

Matthias powered forward, accelerating, becoming more momentum than anything else.

"Got it." Sally ignited the wrist-blades, each a foot of blue, humming energy. "Make it count, Tails." She told him, and then the charge hit.

Sally threw herself sideways as Tails moved, directing the orbs not towards Matthias as she had expected, but at the floor. Each orb was concentrated kinetic energy, so when he struck the floor with them, he effectively tried to move Moebius. All the energy he spent had to have a reaction, and that reaction was to propel the fatigued fox skyward, up and over the behemoth's charge.

As he had predicted, Matthias had built up a massive amount of momentum in the charge that had carried them to him, as soon as his targets disappeared from view, he tried to corner and follow them. His momentum dragged him forward, carrying him through one of the massive stone columns that held the ceiling up. His bulk cracked and top the bottom of the pillar from the ground, and for a few seconds he carried two tonnes of stone with him. Then he slew to a halt, the pillar flying away having had most of his momentum transferred into it.

Tails desperately spun his namesakes to arrest his descent, but muscle groups refused to obey him. They eventually spun, slowing him down, but not enough to stop his legs giving out as he landed, dropping him to prone. He struggled to his feet, painfully aware of his target approaching from behind, aware of his injuries, and those he had managed to inflict on others. _Fiona._

No, he wouldn't let his pain slow him now. He'd already screwed up her life, so he would at least live to make sure she got out. He didn't know how bad her injuries were, if anyone could save her…but she wouldn't die on Moebius. _**He wouldn't let it.**_

He pushed himself to his knees, waiting for Matthias to get closer…then, when he was naught but a few steps away, fired another kinetic blast point blank into the ground, and sent himself towards Matthias' face, tails sharpening. He felt them slice as he passed over the creature, felt them open wounds in his face and he twisted in the air, noting his handiwork. The poor, benighted creature now had a new set of scars to show, along with a scrape that had torn across an eye, leaving it sightless. His namesakes responded faster this time, muscles warming up, and he managed to land shakily on his feet this time round, staring at Matthias over the distance.

The damage had barely slowed him – he was already gearing up for another charge.

Or at least he was until Sally swung in behind him, digging her blades into one of the massive pistons strapped to his legs, and twisting sharply. The metal tore against the solid energy edge, pulling the two parts of the piston apart. Matthias lurched as he began, the sudden lack of power and added weight around his leg skewing his movement and he stumbled sideways against it, head twisting before one arm reached down to rip the shattered cybernetics from his organic tissue. He wheeled on Sally, as Tails moved, throwing another ball of kinetic energy at the creature's side. It generated nothing like the momentum that his charges did, but it detonated just below the ribs, lifting Matthias and tossing him onto his side.

Tails began to limp forward, Sally skirting round the best to get to him.

"Wow." She told him, moving to support his frame.

"That's basic kinetics, the easiest thing to turn chaos energy into. It's also pretty much my only means of flight at the minute." They both looked to the struggling behemoth, lurching back to his feet.

"We're running out of time." Sally sighed.

Tails shook his head. "We've got as long as it takes."


	12. Rescue Mission ii

Telera sprinted through passageways, her thoughts torn every way by the right one as she struggled to organise what was going on. Lupin had abandoned her, Fiona was dying if not dead, Tails and Sally were facing off against mutant Elias, Sonic was duelling _himself…_ and here she was, searching through a palace she didn't recognise for a pink hedgehog who was, as Lupin had put it, more trouble than she was worth.

Paintings, murals and doorways flashed by around her, the tigress using her nose and ears to try and find her goal – Amy had been in this palace for some time, and she had spent a lot of it moving around…her trail led everywhere, but at least it was strong. A trail oft took a few days to fade, and this was fresh; she could follow this, _if only she knew which one to follow!_

The smell suddenly grew stronger…remarkably stronger. Telera found herself sprinting across a crossroads, and the trail terminated abruptly outside a small, wooden door. The tigress paused, pressing one ear against the rough wood, trying to ascertain who, or what, was on the other side. There was breathing….low, constant, muffled by the wood…nothing else, not that she could hear.  
She slid one claw out, working it into the primitive tumbler-lock on the door, smiling to herself as she heard the familiar _-click-_ of the door unlocking.

She inched it open slowly, wary of any possible trap, as she had been trained.

_Anywhere you haven't been before is hostile. Everywhere you have been is, the only difference is you know where you're going._

Her old mentor, probably dead now, taken by the hostile wilds of Cat Country. He had trained her, not the Freedom Fighters, and she had yet to be bested with her skill in the arts. Telera blinked, and gasped, a sharp intake of breath that was uncommon in the mute girl.

The girl had just been abandoned, left in what looked to be a store cupboard, propped up in the corner. Her trousers and top had been replaced with a dark flight-suit, all zips and pockets. She seemed oblivious of her surroundings, unaware of the tigress who had just walked in, and was pacing in front of her, trying to work out what was wrong.

Something was very obviously wrong. The hedgehog's eyes were vacant, devoid of any life or feeling, unfocussed, staring into space. With no method of communicating with the others, Telera was alone in trying to solve this problem.

Well, couldn't hurt to cover all the standard bases. She slapped Amy across the cheek. Not hard, but solid.

_Within the confines of her mind, within Amy's endless, painless dream, she went on, unaware of the pain and turmoil around her._

_Then the dream rocked – lurched sideways, and the hedgehog felt her perceptions shudder with it. It righted itself in a moment, but it left Amy off-balance and confused._

Satisfied that it had drawn no response, the tigress snapped her fingers by the hedgehog's ears.

_The wind, until now a cool breeze, switched to a hurricane impossibly fast, bringing with it a horrible, keening screech, sounding over even the howling gale of the winds. Just as when the world had tilted, it disappeared as swiftly as it had come._

_Then came the pain, the memories, half-forgotten, mewling things leaking through from another time._

_Tails, a glint of malice in his eyes…_

_Fiona, encase in crystal…_

_Lupin, disappearing…_

_Sally, struggling against a familiar behemoth…_

_Telera, prowling, hunting for something lost…_

_Sonic...fighting a shadow that threatened to claim victory over him._

__

That was it. Amy spun, taking in the world around her, seeing where things didn't match up, some things out of focus, others not where they should be or not there at all. It was like…like…like a dream.

_Pain stabbed into her skull and she sank to her knees, crying out. The forms she had believed real seemed ethereal now, as If without presence, and she was starting to make sense of it all. Nothing around her, nothing she could see was real. Colours starting bleeding out, running from surfaces and congealing into puddles of swirling, maddening colour._

In the real world, Amy stirred, her form staggering forward, falling into Telera's arms. It was an unconscious motion; the hedgehog-girl was still encased in a dream, only just now beginning to feel the outside world once again.

_That motion brought with it more memories…fur…a handshake, a welcome as she had first joined the team…__**The Freedom Fighters…**__ Gravity shifted, a full ninety degrees, and objects, blurs and nothing more, started to fall past._

_"This…this doesn't make any sense!" she cried out against the white noise, struggling to stand then falling to her knees over and over._

_More and more memories flooded through the cracks in the mindscape, the real world replacing the pseudo-life Anima had built to conceal life from her. Great chunks of mental construction ripped itself free and fluttered away, ripping itself apart in the air even as the old thoughts and memories placed themselves back in control. Most of it was pain, recent and brutal…but it only strengthened her resolve. Amy was sure now, sure that she was going back to the real world, the real life and friends, the real Sonic, and she'd rather spend her life trying to win him over than have it faked by another._

She started to cry, tears running freely as she lay in Telera's arms, the tigress having shifted her around a bit to be more comfortable. As the last shreds of the artificial mind melted away, Amy knew exactly why she was so distraught. She had gotten angry and run away, stupidly. She had let herself get taken in by these lying bastards, and the others, now fighting to save her. The memories were not her own; they were bits and pieces pulled into her mind, her subconscious finding them threaded in the air and using them to wake her up.

"What have I done…" she mouthed, shuddering violently in a cold sweat. She had to make things right, somehow. Pushing off Telera, the tigress making no move to stop her, she clambered unsteadily to her feet, checking everything. The suit was new…but they hadn't removed her communicator, and her hammer was still connected by the same means…

"Tails. I'm alive." She said into the communicator.

"Oh for fuck-" his voice came back, then dissolved into booming thunder for a moment, the sound of cracking stone. "I don't suppose you have any idea what the fuck you've put us through, do you?" he sounded exhausted. "Fiona's near dead, Lupin betrayed us and ran, Sally and I are fighting a fucking mutant, and Sonic's fighting his bastard copy." More thunder. "And don't give me an apology now. Get back up here and put that fucking hammer to good use. You're the only one of us who hasn't spent the entire trip fighting someone, so for fuck's sake move." He sounded exhausted, not just tired, but drained of energy.

Amy looked back at Telera, but only met a blank expression. Whatever the tigress thought of the situation, she was content not to show it as vehemently as Tails was. Her hands, however, were moving, speaking.

_"We have to go. He's right; Tails is almost dead on his feet and he's in the middle of a fight. He sent me after you now because he hoped that you might actually be able to help. We were coming to get you anyway, but we were going to do it when things had calmed down a bit. No time now."_ She pulled herself to her feet, pulling the door open again. _"I'll show you the way. Come on."_

* * *

To have said that Tails was exhausted and drained would be an understatement. His energy was all but used up; his remaining rings had run dry replenishing him before he had begun, or used up in his super form. His own natural energy was naught but the last dregs of force he was urging from aching, painful muscles. He was starting to think he was running on adrenalin alone, and it was most likely a very accurate guess.

Though both his efforts and Sally's, Matthias now bore another set of cuts and gashes, along with further damage to the pistons and armour covering his bulky frame, but the damage seemed to only serve to make the situation worse. With each stab and slice he got a little bit angrier, with each strike that missed he got a little more determined to hit harder and faster…and Tails was only running out of steam.

Each jump was laboured and each landing knocked the wind from him, and each strike was done with less strength behind each fresh blow. In better circumstances he would have already won, a successful chaos spear or chaos blast having ripped the giant apart. On other terms he would have called Sonic, the light-speed hedgehog ripping through him like butter. He couldn't do either; his chaos powers would not regenerate while he remained on Moebius, and to call Sonic would be to distract the hero from his own battle against Scourge.

And that was something that could not be done; the blue hedgehog almost perfectly matched the green one in terms of power and speed. One eye had to be kept on his opponent, each strike had to be blocked and countered within a split second, and the other eye had to remain fixed on the road ahead, to avoid running straight through the stone pillars, the numbers of which had dramatically increased thanks to the efforts of Tails and Sally down below.

Oh, that was another thing. Sonic couldn't slow down; if he did, he would fall off the ceiling. And yet…Sonic was enjoying himself. It was exhilarated, to be able to run at his fastest against an opponent who could keep up, and one who was so easily pissed off as well. Scourge was already seething with anger from all the jibes and taunts that had been thrown at him, while the blue Mobian just soaked up insults or let them wash over him, laughing and taunting all the way.

"So what are ya really here for?" Scourge asked finally, jinking between two uprights and slamming into Sonic's side. The strike shunted him away, but his footing remained sure and the blue hedgehog reciprocated the gesture an instant later, adding a rush of chaos energy into the mix. It was not enough to strike Scourge from the ceiling, but enough to make him stumble and lose his coordination, enough to allow Sonic to manoeuvre him into a pillar, passing round it himself.

The stone construction shattered with Scourge's passing, sending chunks of marble and limestone to the floor below. The Moebian emerged roaring in pain and anger, his shout dying in his throat as he realised his error.

_He had lost sight of Sonic._

He couldn't stop running to check, he couldn't pause and look around in case he hit him or he slowed enough to drop off the roof, he didn't have time to- something rammed into his side at an impossible speed, wrenching his feet from the ceiling and dropping him towards the floor.

Scourge twisted in the air, rushing air shutting off his hearing but his eyes uninhibited.

He saw Sonic's foot a split-second before it slammed into his face, and then a moment later they hit the floor.

The impact from two hedgehogs travelling at several hundred miles per hour, supplemented by chaos energy, drove a ten foot crater hole into the floor of the throne room. Stone cracked and pillars split from the thundering crash, and even Matthias, dead as he was to the outside world, stumbled and stopped for a moment, bracing himself against the shockwave, raising one hand against the flagstones that had been ripped from the flooring.

It broke four of Scourge's ribs and his right wrist. He stared up at Sonic, grinning psychotically, and even in spite of the situation he was in, he couldn't help but throw another jibe into the mix.

"If you're her for that pink hedgehog whore, ya should probably know that she 'ain't a virgin any more, buddy." It was a grave mistake, as he soon found out as Sonic's fist cracked across his jaw, twice.

"What? You wanted first crack at her?" he grinned again through bloody teeth, spitting one out in the process. Sonic punched him again, making sure to smash his nose in with the wedding ring on his finger.

"Feels good, don't it?" Scourge asked, maintaining the grin. "My turn!" he lurched forward, smashing his forehead against the bridge of Sonic's nose. The Mobian's grip loosened a fraction and the green hedgehog swung his good arm across, catching Sonic on the temple and throwing him off him. In a moment Scourge was on his feet, spitting flecks of blood onto the floor. He had a grand total of four seconds still standing before Sonic, by now angrier than he could be bothered to say, ran into him again at full-pelt.

The greener hedgehog was still an anarchy-empowered super-fast hedgehog, and he saw Sonic coming, long enough before to allow him to twist out of the way. He jerked to the side, just enough to avoid getting run through by diamond-hard spines, but not far enough to avoid having his arm torn from its socket in a welter of blood. The would fused almost instantly from the heat and chaos energy generated, but the pain was like nothing he had ever felt before.

He sunk to his knees before a hand fastened around his neck and lifted him from the ground once again, turning him in the air so he could see Sonic once again, and this time, he didn't have the strength for insults – he was too busy gritting his remaining teeth against the pain.

"See, now you made a mistake, green-boy." Sonic snarled, his eyes flashing white. "You made me your **enemy.** The last word came out as a primal growl, far from Sonic's usual voice, accompanied by a surge of bright, multi-coloured flame.

"What ya gonna do?" Scourge grunted through his teeth. "You gonna kill me?"

**"No, because I'm not you. Doesn't mean I can't hurt you for fucking around, though."** he spun on his heel and threw the Moebian quite cleanly across the length of the room, past the embattled Tails and Sally, for him to slam into the wall.

His work done, Sonic sagged, finally feeling the drain of prolonged fighting with someone that fast. His eyes returned to their normal colour and he dropped to one knee, breathing heavily. He had to help Tails…but first…_What the fuck had come over him there? He hadn't felt that angry since…since Alicia's death. And this time, this time he had enjoyed it. What was happening?_

He lifted his head, trying to shake off the sadistic feelings still running through him, watching as Tails threw himself aside from another strike.

The kitsune landed painfully on his shoulder, pushing himself to his feet, grunting out halting, ragged breaths. He knew that he didn't have to wait long; Amy had the hammer, and that would be the first useful thing she had done in a long time, but first…

"Sonic…" he spoke into the comm, watching Matthias pace slowly. "When Telera gets back, take her and Sally and get out of here."

"No fucking way!" his friend called back from over the hallway, dragging himself to his feet. He should be faster…damn anarchy radiation.

Tails was too tired to shout. "Sonic…you have to go, now. Even with the chaos emerald…" he paused, rolling under another charge and firing a small orb of kinetic energy after the behemoth. "Your time is almost as limited as mine. The emerald just holds the effects…back a bit." Matthias slew to a halt just before the wall, and then the orb hit, striking the back of his head and propelling him into the wall proper. "Sally And Telera…you can get them out with chaos control, but I need Amy here to help with this, and you can't take Fiona, not in her condition."

"I'm not leaving without you, Tails." Sonic used the comm this time, seeing his friend's distress, but unable to gather enough strength to help.

"I'm not giving you the option. If you don't get them out now, you won't make it back, and none of us will get out of here alive. I'll find us a way out, don't worry. Sonic…just trust me. Please."

There was no anger in his voice by this point, only a desperate, fragmented will trying to save lives. This was what Fiona had been talking about, Tails realised in a moment of clarity; he wasn't fighting just to kill Matthias, he was fighting because if he failed, Fiona would die here. It was enough, at least, to give him one burst of energy, enough to meet the charge that he had neglected, and strike back against it.

It was not his own strength that let him retaliate, but his strength of will, the fierce hatred of his foe and the will to keep going. He threw his strike and the two met in the air, and it was Matthias' knuckles that popped with a series of sickening pops.

The force of the strike rocked Tails to his very core, every bone and fibre in his body jarred by the force of the impact and he dropped to his hands and knees, the last of his strength spent. He could only watch as the behemoth raised its fists, bellowing in a mix of rage and pain, in a last, final smash to crush the life out of him.

It came as a surprise the following roar, suddenly devoid of the rage, transmuted neatly into pure agony and accompanied by a loud cracking. The crushing blow hit home, several feet from where Tails lay, cracking cobbles and flagstones with force greatly reduced from the one that had been intended.  
Had Matthias not been so intent on killing Tails, he would have noticed Telera re-enter the room, dragging someone with her. He would have known that the newcomer had seen the scene playing out, and gone to Tails' aid.

"Back off you big bastard!" _He knew that voice._ Tails knew that high-pitched screech that he had set aside so recently, he knew that the crack had been as something very solid and hammer-like had just slammed home against the behemoth's knee, shattering it and putting his aim off so far. It was the reason he was still Miles Prower, and not just a nondescript pile of yellow fur, bone dust and gristle. He also knew that it was the voice of the very girl they had come to rescue.

Amy had hated him for dumping her, but frankly that mattered very little now. From those flashes of memory she had realised exactly what she had done. That hate had been swiftly supplanted by fear, self-degradation and a hate for both herself – for getting them all into this mess – and against the arseholes who had brought her here.

Frankly it didn't matter that the thing she had just struck was a ten foot tall behemoth of fur, bionics and pain. He had tried to kill Tails; he had tried to kill most of them, and that was enough.

"Sonic…" Tails muttered through the comm, wincing against the pain. "Now go. Get Sally and Telera out of here."

"We've been through this-"

"Indeed…we have." Tails nodded feebly to himself, dragging his body a few feet further from the thrashing creature. "And I'm not giving you any choice. Go. I'll be fine, just do it."

"You're _not_ fine." The hedgehog explained bluntly, making his way over.

"And it doesn't matter…you know the stakes. If you don't get back with those two, they won't get out at all, and neither will you. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll get myself, Fiona and Amy back somehow." Tails raised one hand, motioning for both the squirrel and tigress to go to Sonic. They had both heard the conversation and understood that they couldn't sway him. He watched their shadows move as Amy dropped down beside him, tears pouring down her face.

"Tails-" she began, but he cut her off, his voice scolding.

"Don't. Just _don't._ In case you haven't guessed, I'm almost dead from anarchy poisoning. Fiona's almost dead and we're almost out of time. You're staying behind because you're the only one who hasn't had to fight their way here. You're going to do as I say and then we might get home. Now, will you for once do as you're fucking told?" he practically spat the words at her, but she could only nod in assent.

Regardless of his tone, of however much she wanted to shout at him for speaking to her like that, the fact that she had just put them through hell pushed past her own shortcomings.

Tails saw the agreement even as he could feel the strength draining from his limbs and he rolled onto his side, tying to conserve as much energy as possible. His breaths were laboured and slow, drawing as deeply as he could find himself able. He could feel his body degrading; it was a literal living decomposition.

"What do I do?" Amy asked, eager to make amends.

"For now…kill that bastard." He twitched in Matthias' direction, a sign which was enough for Amy.

"Sonic, get out of here! Now!" he snapped at his old friend. "I'm not telling you twice."

The hedgehog, with one arm round Sally and the other around Telera, looked at his friend, concern and nothing else evident on his features. "Good luck." He whispered. "Chaos control!" and disappeared in a warping mass of light, the dimensions around him pulled taught as the world he was in resisted the touch of chaos.

"Wait…Amy…give me the hammer." Tails felt them go, felt the ripples of chaos energy against the universe and sucked them in, using them to provide himself with a minor power boost to his own reserves of chaos energy. He would need them.

He accepted the weapon wearily, placing his hand flat against the head and willing the rings stored inside to appear. They did so, half a dozen of the glowing lifelines. They were meant to charge the EMP device, but there would be no need of that. The circles flashed as he absorbed them, each one a ripple of energy and revitalisation, giving him the strength once again haul himself upright and hand the weapon back to the pink hedgehog next to him.

"There's a lot to do." He told Amy. "so you're going to be working."

"What's first?"

"First?" he raised one hand, emerald flames flickering around them. "First, we finish off this tosser and make sure he can't get back up. Then we see exactly how Scourge found you in the first place. First thing's first." A small orb of power crystallised in his hand. "No more interruptions."


	13. Rescue Mission iii

It wasn't the first time Tails had felt defeated. That had been many years ago, when Sonic had first coerced him into talking. Then, two years later, when a small portion of Knothole had been firebombed because he was too slow to stop it. This was his way of paying up for those moments – Sonic was getting Telera and Sally out of there, making sure they escaped, and if nothing else, Tails would make sure that the others got back. But first, they had a giant to kill.

Even with one leg crippled beyond repair, pain cracking through the flood of painkillers, Matthias was still quite a real threat. He was still full of cybernetics and pistons, his strength still phenomenal and now accentuated by his rage, he could rip them apart, if only they let him. As things stood he was near-immobilised, for now to run he had to use all three of his remaining limbs to even drag himself across the floor, and he could barely turn at all. Even so, Tails already bore a new set of cuts from bits of masonry scoring across him, and Amy hadn't even been able to get close. Her hammer was the only thing left that could really do any damage, drained as Tails was of his power. He backflipped away from yet another bunker-buster blow, landing unsteadily against the quaking. One hand reached out to steady him as Matthias dragged himself forward, and Tails' hand shot out, casting another fragment of energy at him. The splinter of power cut the air and entered Matthias' shoulder, ripping back the skin and adding a fresh slice to the collection.

It was one of thousands of tiny, insignificant wounds that he had taken during the fight – the only substantial one had been the wrecking of his leg, and since then they had been unable to close with him to attempt a similar attack – they had to limit their fighting to the throne room, as well, so they never lost sight of Fiona's body. Her sudden injury had sparked a series of feelings that he would not abandon, not now.

A slab of paving flew past his head as he thought, snapping him back to reality. It was strange, he was fighting with strength he knew for sure he didn't have. He didn't have any energy left, his adrenalin was sure as hell gone, and his rings had been used up long ago, all his reserves at home. Whatever was powering him at the moment was alien to him, and he didn't like not knowing. It felt angry, but that was absurd – you couldn't keep going on rage alone.

"Got any ideas?" Amy asked, trotting back up to him, hammer trailing behind her.

"Fucked if I know." he groaned. "That hammer was my trump card, and since we can't get within even a few feet anymore…I'm out of ideas and time."

"Then you wait here. I got you all into this, so I'll get us out." It was a rare spark of defiance that Amy showed there.

"Are you-"

"No, Tails! Don't! You've already shouted at me when you broke up with me so don't try it again!" the hedgehog was almost shouting. "If I'm the only one with any chance against this…thing…then I'm going to stop him! You're almost dead because of me, and so is Fiona, so let me do this for once. I'm not a kid and you don't need to watch everything I do!"

"You have no idea what you're doing." His voice was low and threatening, but lacked the power he usually possessed. "If you go it alone, you'll die."  
"And if you go, we both will. Look at you, Tails. You can't stand for longer than a minute at a time. Just go and make sure your real girlfriend is alright and let me give it a shot."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Oh for-" Amy clenched her hands tightly. "Come on! Even I've seen the way you two have been acting! She's after you as much as I'm after Sonic."  
"She can't be. I haven't had to use military-grade steel to keep her away." Tails smiled, the first happy expression he had made since they had arrived. "But seriously? How can all you guys be seeing something I'm not?"

"Because you've never been in a proper relationship, remember?" She would know. She was the closest thing there had been. "At least I've noticed. I don't pretend Sonic's going out with me. I'm actually trying to go after him, so I know what it looks like."

"Since when is Fiona after me, and since when are you a relationship advisor?"

"Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?"

"Why do you have to be so damn obsessive?" he countered. "So you don't have anything concrete on it, so let's get this over with before the sack of meat sits on us."

"Let _me_ get this over with." Amy snapped at him again. "I told you, you're sitting this one out. Just tell me where to hit him."

"Well…" he furrowed his brow for a moment, then a dark prescience took hold and he glanced up, his hand rising in a fist. Energy flared around it and cracked loudly against the descending paw of the behemoth that had slowly dragged his way over. He grunted against the pain of the blow, pouring his strength into holding back. It was that spark of resistance which took victory. The longer he had held out, the more determined Matthias became to break him. The mutant's mind was of a feral beast; if something didn't budge at the first push, you just kept on pushing until it did.

There was the sound of bone cracking as Tails' arm, strong but not as strong as his opponent, began to buckle. He did not have the luxury of painkillers, and each splinter of bone that broke sent white light down his arm, colours popping in his eyes.

The flames burning around his hand flared suddenly, charring his gloves and burning the fur down his arm. The hair flickered and changed, from pale yellow to shadowy black. The fox gritted his teeth against the pain of his own power lashing out, burning everything within reach. Amy was saved only by her hammer, spinning it in front of the wash of flame, the paint on it peeling and melting. The damage made its way down his arm, blackening the fur on his shoulder then torso, darkened fur creeping up his neck and around his eyes.

Tails couldn't stop it. The fire was out of control – it was taking over him, consuming him. Through all this, Matthias paused, even his shattered and crippled mind alerting him to the power raging unchecked within that body. Somewhere within the flames, Tails fought against it with everything he had left…and his will broke. The pain kicked down his meagre, battered defences, and he screamed as every nerve in his body triggered in once, each howling the same, screeching message.

Abruptly, his perceptions were brutally ripped away from the mortal plain. As his mind withdrew, he felt something, something dark, and powerful, and _sentient_, rush past, and he caught a brief glancing brush of pure malice and hatred. He knew nothing of what happened after that, none of the few moments that he lost control. Amy and Matthias knew all too well.

Tails' fur, blackened but somehow untouched by the fire, bristled and the fox moved, a flickering shadow. His fist snapped to the side and the other hand swung round, fastening against Matthias' meaty wrist, such a small thing holding back the giant. Completing the motion he dragged the arm down, breaking it against the stones, along with the floor itself, rock cracking under the pressure.

"I'm stronger than you." He told Matthias, and threw a strike at the giant's face. It smote him along the bridge of the nose, snapping him around onto his side, blood spurting. "I'm faster than you."

Before the behemoth could react, he knifed through the air, into close proximity, one hand fastening around one of the augmetics on his stomach and lifting Matthias from the ground. He threw him, almost discarding him, across the length of the room.

"I was born of the darkness. I hate the one that created me. I was created by the hatred of everything. Thus, I hate everything. I will bleed all these worlds dry of colour and life; render them unto dust and ashes and nothing more that barren wastelands. I am death and I walk, and I will as long as this suit of flesh lives to serve my purpose. And you will know me." He turned to Amy, a whiplash motion that she didn't seen happen. "You will know me as Umbra, the hatred crushed into diamond and forced into a fool. I will see this reality brought to its knees."

Umbra had expected Amy to quail in fear – he knew of her through Tails, he knew that really, she was just a coward hiding behind a weapon that should have been used by someone more competent. She was nothing to him, not even worth considering as a problem. He was utterly shocked when the hammer cracked across his forehead.

"You're not Tails! I know what he looks like and what he says!" she screeched at him. "I don't care what you are, give him back!"

Umbra didn't reply. Powerful as he was, the product of negative energy, hatred, and chaos combined, he had been entirely unprepared for a blunt object made of Megatal colliding with his skull at a reasonably high speed. It was enough for his control to waver and loosen around Tails, and it was like blacking out. Just before it happened, he realised what he had missed. She was prone to irrational acts of violence or rage when provoked.

* * *

"Oh source…thank source I didn't hurt you…" Amy was hugging him when he came round, but he did not push her away this time. There was numbing cold running through his very bones, and she was at least helping to alleviate that to some extent. It was accompanied by dull pain, less of the sharp agony from wounds, but the fatigue and damage done to him by anarchy poisoning was still evident…his strength was all but gone, still, so…so why was Matthias lying broken against the wall? More importantly, what was that thing he had just known?

"Just…let go of me a moment. I need to think." She moved, lowering him to the floor to avoid hurting him beyond the pain he already felt. "What…tell me what just happened?"

"I don't know." It was the most obvious thing Amy could say. "You sort of went black and killed that thing, just like that. You kept talking about destroying the world. Called yourself Umbra."

"Well, shit." He rubbed his head, trying to clear it from the headache and trying to make sense of it. Whatever had happened, something else was in his head, something malevolent and living. "It doesn't matter for now. I know how to get us out of here, but we need to go lower. Into the castle."

"Why?"

"Miles had to get to Mobius somehow, didn't he? He had to get you and bring you back. I'm figuring he has some technology to do it with, and I'm guessing it has something to do with this." Tails held up the anarchy beryl, taken from Fiona after her incapacitation. "I haven't seen any of his portals on our scanners, so I'm assuming he's managed to stabilise the wormhole from this end." He frowned, speaking his thoughts aloud. "That would require focussing apparatus, a constructed, permanent portal of some kind. Amy, do you know anywhere like that? You've been in here a while."

"What?"

"A portal. Basically a large circular thing. Seen anything like it?"

The pink hedgehog thought for a moment, trying to remember. Most of her memories of this place were in a haze, but there was a picture of sorts.

"Yea! I know a place that might be it!"

"Then help me carry Fiona." Tails hauled himself painfully to his feet, limping towards the crystallised vixen, taking hold of the ring near her head and waiting for Amy to join him. She stowed the hammer in the pocket-dimension and moved to assist him, taking hold of the second ring and lifting the stasis tube from the floor. It weighed almost nothing, defying the laws of physics to make the job easier. She walked backwards, out of the throne room, sparing not even a glance for Matthias or the damage that had been caused, frequently pausing and glancing over her shoulder both to see where she was and to avoid walking into anything. Flights of steps were negotiated with minimal difficulty, eschewing the stairs on Tails' advice that Anima may still be watching. The AI had been silent thus far, but for all they knew she was merely watching and waiting for a better opportunity, a higher possibility of success.

The laboratory hadn't change from the last time Amy had been in there. The portal itself, shaped like a pair of pincers festooned with spikes, wires stapled to the walls in organised clusters, snaking out to connect to panels and generators, all heading towards a central pedestal with a slot clearly designed to hold the beryl. She carefully avoided the operating bench – the things she had witnessed in her supressed state had left their mark on her mind, but it was not this that Tails was basing his work around.

"Before I start this, there is a warning I should give you. I don't know how Miles built this, or even if he was the one to do so. Felicia was a smart opponent. It's entirely possible. I don't know how far the Moebian language differs from ours either, so if there are instructions I may not be able to understand them. Half of this is going to be done by eye, so the process isn't going to be perfect. If I'm lucky enough to even land us on Mobius, there's no guarantee that it's anywhere useful. We could end up in the forests just as easily as the heart of the Eggman Empire or the middle of the north oceans. Either way, you're the only one of us who's in any fit state to get us out of any predicament we may find ourselves in, so for the sake of chaos, don't fuck this up again."

* * *

Sonic had made it off Mobius with Sally and Telera. When Tails had told him to run he had almost been able to say no, but something about his voice, something had made it so imperious that he had been unable to. He had run, trees blurring into one continuous line of green and brown, jinking around those that got in his way or smashing headlong through them when he couldn't avoid them, trying his best to avoid hurting the two girls he was carrying with him. His memory, with its near-perfect recall, took them to the place they had appeared, even as Tails and Amy struggled against Matthias. When they had reached that point, however, there had been some objections.

Sally was protective – very much so. It was the motherly affection she had towards Tails, even when he was at his darkest, that made her stand out against leaving him behind.

"You're going back for him." She told Sonic quite bluntly when they stopped.

"Huh? What makes you say that?" the hedgehog didn't like what he was doing. It went against his way of life, but he knew the stakes.

"He's almost dead for Nimbus' sake!"

"Yea, and he knows what he's doing. He said he would make sure Fiona got off this planet alive, and I believe him. Didn't you see that copy he made of her? You know, while he was in super mode? He won't let her die here, and she won't let him stay behind."

"And you still believe that? This isn't the first time he's taken on more than he's capable of. You saw how bad a condition he was in before we left and you still ran away. How could you do something like that?"

"Because I trust him." Sonic was remaining remarkably level-headed. "He's not ten. He doesn't need looking after all the time and honestly I know we'll see him again. He came here after Amy, we all did, and he'll get all of us out of here."

"And Lupin?"

"I don't know."

_"He's not coming back."_ Telera told them. _"He's gone, and even if Tails did find him, he wouldn't want to come back. I saw the look in his eyes."_  
Her words were greeted with a moment of silence, working it through. "Let's go." Sonic said finally, breaking the ice. "I'm not going back for Tails, because he'll be back on Mobius before we know it. So let's get this over with."

He took the emerald from the space and held it in both hands in front of him, feeling the gem vibrate as it sensed its kin, inhabiting something approaching the same space, if not necessarily the same dimension. It made a sort of sense to the hedgehog – the emeralds were alive, in a way, and they knew when there was another close by. He got it that Tails used this link to make the bridge, to make sure that they got back alive and in the same place they had left. Sonic didn't know the math of it – it wasn't what he was good at. But he knew that Tails knew that it couldn't be the only way to Mobius. Miles, or whoever it was, had found their way there first time around and abducted Amy, and they hadn't had a chaos emerald, or an anarchy beryl or anything like that to bridge the gap. If Tails knew of a way back, he'd damn-well find it and use it.

In the space in front of him the portal ripped itself open, a rough, jagged edge at first, forming itself to match the portal at the other end as a sphere hanging in the air, the reality around it distorted and tugged into the little patch of the other world. Something was different...it was the evening, or the night at least, he could see it through the haze and shift of the distortion, and Nicole still stood vigil over it, but it was clear that something about the clearing had changed. "Come on." He told the girls, taking each one by the hand. "Sally, if we don't see Tails by the end of the week, I'll come back here and take the whole planet apart to find him. Yea, you might be right, he might have taken a bigger bite than he can chew, but I don't think he has. If I'm wrong, I'll make it right."

"Thanks, Sonic. You don't know how much it means to hear you say that."

"Oh, I know. The guy was best man at the wedding. Me and him have been beating badniks for as long as I can be bothered to remember. I'm hardly going to let him lie down and die because he's a little tired. He's like a brother that I never had, and I look out for my family. Come on, let's get home and watch and see what happens."

* * *

Sonic's premonition was stronger than he had first expected. In truth, he had thought he would have to return. He had agreed with Sally, but he wasn't one to disagree with Tails when it came to this. And though he believed his wife, he couldn't help but believe his pseudo-brother in equal measure. Tails didn't really know much about emotion, but he had seen the vixen-apparition with his own eyes. All the other creatures had been creatures of flight, the dragon, the phoenix, the falcon. Never before had they been ones that walked, not until that day. He had never gotten close enough, but it was damn-close to being Fiona, even her fur matched it.

But he had expected to have to return. Sometimes Tails took on more than he could cope with, and each time it had been Sonic bailing him out with a madman's charge and witty comment. Not this time. Four days later, they received a call, a transmission from some distance away on Angel Island, from Echidnapolis. Apparently Amy Rose had appeared in the outskirts, crying her eyes out and trying her best to carry two other Mobians matching the descriptions of Fiona Fox and Miles Prower. At the time they received the message, he was being treated by the best doctors on the island, and there was a fierce debate underway on how to stabilise Fiona once she emerged from stasis.

"Let's go." It was all Sonic had said in response, but all that had been needed. None of the freedom fighters, Sally, Telera, Rotor or Nicole needed any prompting, and a ship had been prepared for their departure within the hour. Nicole flew personally, as a nanite construct that was almost an exact copy of her hard-light hologram. She had left the city running on automatic – there was nothing that required her attention bar the legion, which would remain on standby until she returned. Everyone, it seemed, who heard the news, was affected by his return. The flight was made in silence, Nicole communicating with the authorities on Angel Island through the radio in brief bursts until they could touch down on the landing pad.

Knuckles met them when they embarked, his usual abrasive nature tempered somewhat by what he had heard.  
"Knux? What happened to guarding the emerald?" Sonic asked him casually, stepping from the neat transport craft they had used.  
"I heard the state Tails was in and figured someone he knew should be there watching him. Tikal's got a little time out of the emerald, so she's guarding it while I'm away. She knows how important that kid is.

Tikal, the Echidna imprisoned within the emerald that held Angel Island in the sky. _How the hell is she out of the emerald?_

"What about Chaos? Won't he go all psycho on our collective ass if she's not in there?"

"She's close enough for him to still be affected. She's got a surprisingly strong will. Come on, I'll show you the way." The guardian of the Master Emerald pivoted and started strolling away, apparently enjoying his brief freedom. "Come on, this guy's been through three kinds of hell to make it back."

The others were all too happy to oblige, and as they walked, Knuckles filled them in on what had happened. During the past few days, when he had been able, Knuckles had been Tails' confidant. "I don't know where you guys went, but I understand it has something to do with the brother of chaos energy, and frankly, the stuff you went through there is amazing. It's nothing short of a miracle that you all made it out."

"Not all of us made it." Sally told him.

"Ah, yes, the wolf." Knuckles stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It doesn't surprise me, honestly. Lupin, from my brief encounters with him, was always the more bloodthirsty one. This Miles character would appeal to his nature. You Freedom Fighters have this thing against killing, if its avoidable. Lupin's a predator. The wolf packs are almost feral even at the best of times. They will kill their prey regardless of terms and conditions. Personally I don't care. My duty is to defend the Master Emerald, so I'll do as much as it takes to deter them. It doesn't usually involve killing, but if it does, it's not something I shy away from."

"Yea, but man, you're job's different. You screw up even once and all this disappears." Sonic swept his arms around to try and indicate Angel Island. "We can afford a slip-up here and there. We've got the option to fall back a little."

"I doubt that's why Lupin left. If what Tails expects is true, and he has joined forces with this unseen enemy of yours, you'll be seeing him very soon, and he won't be very happy to see you. He'll try to kill you. I can't be sure, but that's how I see things. When that happens, you will have to kill him. He's the sort who'll come back over and over until one side has definitively won."

They turned into a broad avenue, thronging with Echidna peoples and their beetle-like vehicles. Many of them recognised Knuckles and shifted marginally aside to give him and his friends easier passage, but they left the avenue swiftly, opting for a series of smaller lanes that took them to a building that was marked quiet obviously with the split cross of the Echidna medical practise. "He's in here." Knuckles told them. "But he's damn beaten up and…I'll let him tell you."

* * *

**A/N: Now, this is the final chapter to Wilted Rose, and I hope you find it a satisfatory ending to a story arc. Remember, there are more arcs beyond this, more things to see, but I should warn you that this marks the end of the stories that are complete. The next story, named Metallix, is only beginning in terms of my writing at the time I say this, so the updates will be far less frequent beyond the opening chapters.**

**My apologies for the slowness of following updates, but FFN is not the only place I spend my time. **


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